LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1449 



in a second courtship cycle in early July and a September record of 

 an immature bird. 



Of a nest she found containing three newly hatched young on July 5, 

 1946, near Sandwich Bay, Labrador, Virginia Orr (1948) writes: 

 "The parent allowed me to approach within two feet slipping off the 

 nest and running back into denser growth. * * * the bird never 

 flew away directly, but ran along the partially covered tunnel for 

 several feet before taking wing. It used the same route when bring- 

 ing food to the young. * * * The fledglings left the nest in a flight- 

 less condition on the twelfth day after discovery." 



In our 1956 nest, which was not found until June 24, the young 

 left the nest on July 2 between 8:00 a.m. and 2:35 p.m. If, as we 

 believe, the young hatched on June 23 when we first noted the female 

 carrying food, then these young left on the ninth day after hatching. 

 In our 1957 nest the first young hatched on June 16 between 10:00 

 a.m. and 4:25 p.m. the next two between 8:55 p.m. on June 16 and 

 7:10 a.m. on June 17, and the final young between 7:10 a.m. and 12:35 

 p.m. on June 17. All four were in the nest when it was checked at 

 5:30 p.m. on June 25; all had left when Neil Atkinson checked it at 

 6:00 p.m. on June 26. Thus they left the nest on the ninth or tenth 

 day after hatching. 



In 1956, we heard the first begging calls from the young on July 14, 

 12 days after leaving the nest and about three weeks after hatching. 

 We color banded the young in our 1957 nest on June 23. On July 14 

 we saw the blue-banded youngster about 100 yards west of the nest, 

 and on July 15, the red-banded one in about the same place. An 

 adult Lincoln's sparrow which we took to be the male of the pair 

 appeared still to be accompanying these two young birds, which 

 were then 27 to 28 days old and 19 to 20 days out of the nest. Mau- 

 rice G. Street of Nipawin, Saskatchewan wrote us that he found a 

 nest of Lincoln's sparrows that contained three eggs on June 10, 1946, 

 that both the male (regularly) and the female (occasionally) visited 

 his feeding station and "both parents were noted feeding young 

 at my station in late July." As the three eggs could scarcely have 

 hatched any later than June 23, this would imply a period of depend- 

 ence probably in excess of the 28 days that Nice (1943) gives as the 

 "age of independence" for Embcrizines. 



Lawrence H. Walkinshaw gives us in a letter some interesting data 

 on a Lincoln's sparrow's nest with two eggs, William Dyer found on 

 June 22, 1956. The nest still contained two eggs on June 25 and had 

 two young on June 28. The young left the nest when they were 

 banded on July 4 when they could not have been more than nine days 

 old. The disturbance of banding may have caused them to leave 

 the nest prematurely. "Both adults fed the young at the nest." 



646-737— 63— pt. 3 14 



