EASTERN FOX SPARROW 1399 



birds are reported. * * * At any one place numbers are generally 

 present for only about two weeks." In Ontario James H. Fleming 

 (1907) calls it a regular migrant at Toronto between Apr. 5 and 29, 

 but of local occurrence and usually not common. In the opinion of 

 J. Hughes-Samuel (J. Macoun, 1909): "This species passes through 

 Toronto so rapidly in its spring migration that it is quite easy to 

 overlook it entirely, hence the idea, I think, that it is scarce." 



In New Brunswick William A. Squires (1952) states the fox sparrow 

 is a common to uncommon transient, with extreme dates in spring 

 from March 20 to May 8. Apart from an occasional wintering indi- 

 vidual, it is also a transient in Nova Scotia. Harrison F. Lewis (MS.) 

 suggests the probability that all the Newfoundland birds and pos- 

 sibly part of the Labrador population pass through Nova Scotia. He 

 adds: "Nevertheless fox sparrows are usually uncommon in migration 

 in southwestern Nova Scotia. I generally see a few each spring and 

 fall, but in the spring of 1955 I did not see any. It appears that, 

 though these birds must regularly cross Cabot Strait between Cape 

 Breton Island and Newfoundland, they prefer not to cross the broader 

 waters of the Gulf of Maine, but either cross the Bay of Fundy 

 towards its head or travel via the Isthmus of Chignecto." 



Two recoveries of banded fox sparrows support this thesis: One 

 banded at Philadelphia Mar. 28, 1940 was recovered at Rochdale, 

 Cape Breton, Apr. 30, 1940; the other, banded at Concord, New 

 Hampshire Apr. 17, 1933, was recovered at Port aux Basques, New- 

 foundland, just across Cabot Strait, May 13, 1933. 



Although this would appear to be the easiest and most favorable 

 route for fox sparrows or other passerines bound "down the coast" 

 for Newfoundland, the records of James Bouteiller (1905-1909) from 

 Sable Island, 100 miles off the Nova Scotian mainland, suggest that 

 some of them cross broader stretches of water fairly regularly. He 

 reports most fox sparrows on Sable Island, where the species does not 

 breed, between April 14 and 17 and October 7 and 20, the chief migra- 

 tory periods of the species in this latitude. 



Fox sparrows migrate at night and usually arrive at their summer 

 home in the dark of early morning. Roger T. Peterson (1955) re- 

 cords some arriving at Gander Airport, Newfoundland, Apr. 11, 1955: 

 "A plane droned in the pre-dawn sky, * * * stray wisps of fog were 

 beginning to blow in * * * . From overhead came the incisive 

 lisps of unseen fox sparrows, the first migrants of the season." 



Nesting habitat. — The one outstanding requirement for the fox 

 sparrow's breeding habitat is dense, bushy cover where the birds 

 can nest and scratch for food while well screened from view. This 

 appears indispensable throughout the species' wide range. South- 

 western races find excellent cover among the thorny tangles of moun- 



