LINCOLN'S SPARROW 1439 



A typical mating was observed at Dorion on June 2, 1956. The 

 female was perched on a brushpile, quivering her wings and uttering 

 intense, high-pitched "dzee-dzee-dzee" notes. After about 5 minutes 

 of this the male flew down from a nearby spruce and pounced on her 

 from above. A short chase took them out of sight behind the brush- 

 pile where, presumably, they copulated. The male then flew back 

 into the spruce and sang. The female mounted to the top of the 

 brushpile calling a slow "tit-tit-tit." The male in the spruce fanned 

 his tail as if displaying to the female, then flew off. 



A pair may mate several times during the course of a morning. 

 On May 29, 1957, a female Lincoln's sparrow busily building her nest 

 was seen to copulate with her mate seven times between 8:00 a.m. 

 and 10:13 a.m. Once she had her bill full of long grasses and flew 

 directly to the nest with them after the act. 



In 1956 a second courtship cycle took place between July 1 and 

 July 7. On July 1 a female Lincoln's sparrow interrupted a heavy 

 schedule of feeding 8-day-old young still in the nest by inviting 

 copulation from her mate with begging flutterings. He obliged. 

 This was probably the initial step in a second nesting that season. 



Territory- — Margaret M. Nice (1937) reports five stages in the 

 establishment of territory by song sparrows. Our impressions after 

 watching Lincoln's sparrows at Dorion for 2 months in the late spring 

 and early summer of 1956, were that the Lincoln's sparrows did not 

 fight among themselves for territories and that song was the only 

 important territorial manifestation. We saw no threats of fighting 

 between "rival" males during our many hours of observation that year. 



On June 3, 1957, at least seven singing males were present on our 

 25-acre study area, which had no more than five in 1956. When we 

 arrived on the territory of L3, a Lincoln's sparrow flew down toward 

 us from a height of about 25 feet from trees to the north. Another 

 flew in low, also from the north. Both entered a brushpile right 

 beside our parked car and chased each other in and out of the brushpile 

 for several minutes. From their appearance and behavior, we felt 

 both birds were females, both birds had their crests depressed, as is 

 usual for females, and one uttered the female characteristic "zrrr" 

 note. Finally one then the other left the brushpile and flew to the 

 forest edge east of us and disappeared. Our field notes read: "After 

 waiting some time for them to come back, I went over to the place 

 where they had disappeared to see if they could be found again. 

 A male was singing there at the southeast edge of his territory (L3). 

 Another male was singing about 100 feet to the southeast (L2). 

 The two sang thus for some time, then both flew out into the open 

 and met in mid air. They climbed vertically upward, breast to 

 breast, fighting on the wing to a height of about twenty feet; then one 



