390 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



At the arborvitae nest the male usually approached it indirectly, 

 flying first to the top of the tree, then to an opening in the foliage, and 

 finally on in with food. The female also returned furtively, often 

 climbing several feet through the thick needles to the nest. Birds 

 nesting in maples usually approached their nests by flying first to a 

 nearby tree, then to the nest branch, and finally to the nest. 



As incubation starts before the clutch is complete, the eggs do not 

 hatch simultaneously. A first clutch laid May 9-13 at Massapequa 

 hatched as follows: May 24, 7:00 a.m., first young out; May 25, 7:00 

 a.m., three young; May 25, 7:00 p.m., four young; May 26, 7:00 a.m., 

 five young. In a late clutch laid July 15-19 the hatching progress 

 was: July 30, 9:00 a.m., three young, 7:30 p.m., three young, one 

 egg pipping; July 31, 7:00 a.m., four young; July 31, 7:00 a.m., all 

 five hatched. Thus the last egg laid had a nest occupancy of around 

 12 days, and it seems unlikely that any first egg took more than 15 

 days to hatch. 



Fledging. — Witherby (1938) gives the period of young in the nest as 

 13-14 days and states that both parents feed the fledghngs in turn by 

 regurgitation. At Massapequa the first young to hatch lay with their 

 heads hanging Umply over the remaining eggs. Typically the female 

 broods the nestlings fairly closely for the first six days. Then, though 

 she covers them continuously at night and during stormy weather, 

 daytime brooding becomes more and more intermittent, but does not 

 cease entirely until the young are well fledged, some three days before 

 they leave the nest. While incubating and while brooding newly 

 hatched young, the female is usually very tame, flushing close and 

 seldom moving far from the nest. As the young develop, she be- 

 comes warier and more easily alarmed, leaving the nest when one 

 approaches within 15 or 20 feet. In the final stages of fledging both 

 adults are reticent about coming near the nest until the intruder 

 departs. John T. Nichols noted similar behavior in a Garden City 

 nesting in 1935. 



The male continues to feed the female while she broods. While she 

 is on the nest, he gives the food to her and she in turn feeds the young. 

 Feeding of the brooding female was last seen in a first nesting when the 

 oldest young was 11 days old, and in a second nesting at 8 days. In 

 both cases the female arrived with the male, took her place on the 

 nest, and accepted food in place of the well-grown young. Both 

 adults immediately left the vicinity and shortly returned with more 

 food. Wlien both adults were feeding the young, intervals between 

 feedings were shorter than when the male was the sole provider. 

 Once the parents fed the young only a few minutes apart, but usually 

 the intervals between feedings were longer, the longest in a second 

 nesting being one hour and forty minutes. 



