1516 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2,3 7 part 3 



structed, it may be placed as much as 3 feet above ground level, 

 usually in a thorn bush." 



One nest, however, he found 9% feet above ground in a horizontal 

 hole in a willow. One banded song sparrow nested for 3 years in his 

 garden: "On May 18, 1947 it was found sitting on three lightly marked 

 eggs in a perfect replica of an ovenbird's nest. On June 14th she was 

 found sitting on three heavily blotched eggs and one cowbird egg, 

 eighteen inches from the ground in a wild rose bush." 



A different picture is given in a letter to Mr. Bent by D. J. Nicholson 

 of small colonies of song sparrows observed from June 10 through 

 August at Lake Summit, near Tuxedo, Henderson County, North 

 Carolina, at an elevation of 2,000 feet. Nests were often placed 2 to 



4 feet up in small pine saplings. Three nests were found "in very 

 large tall pines 25 or 28 feet above the ground," and two others at 20 

 feet; these were built 8 to 15 feet from the trunk of the tree. Around 

 Tuxedo many nests were found "well up in apple trees 6 to 12 feet 

 above ground." 



The nest is usually pretty well completed in two days and lined on 

 the 3rd and perhaps the 4th. A female will engage in building for 

 from 15 to 23 minutes, then interrupt her work for 5 to 8 minutes. 



In the matter of nest building, the yoimg female is in every way the 

 equal of the older and experienced bird in choice of site, skill in 

 construction, quality of the finished structure, and excellence of its 

 concealment. 



The start of egg-laying with the song sparrows on Interpont was 

 closely correlated with the temperature in April; in one year, 1929, it 

 was also affected by the temperature in the last third of March. In 

 6 years the first egg was found between April 15 and 19, but in 1929 

 it was found on April 10, and in 1932, April 23. The start of general 

 laying was closely correlated with temperature. The "normal" date 

 was April 25, but this was accelerated nearly 2 weeks in 1929 and 4 or 



5 days in 1930 and 1931, but was delayed 4 or 5 days in 1933 and 1934. 



In eastern North America between the latitudes of Maine and 

 North Carolina, the races of the song sparrow normally nest through 

 July and into August. Drought curtails nesting, however, as it did 

 on Interpont in 1930, when adults began to molt two weeks early. 

 George M. Sutton (1960) found the same to be true on the Edwin S. 

 George Reserve near Ann Arbor, Mich., where nests were active in 

 July and August of 1934, 1935, and 1940, but not in the extremely 

 dry summers of 1936 and 1946. 



Eggs. — The ground color of the eggs on Interpont ranges typically 

 from blue through blue-green to grey-green. The spots are brown to 

 red-brown and rarely lilac, and are arranged in an endless variety 

 from small speckles nearly uniformly distributed over the whole egg 



