RUFOUS-SIDED TOWHEE 565 



at times to sing a 'whisper song.' It was not the usual song, but 

 a broken warble, low and husky and full of squeaks." 



W. E. C. Todd (1940) writes of this activity in Pennsylvania: 

 "When the females appear, the wooing begins with a lively chase 

 through the thickets. The white-marked wings and taUs flash 

 impressively as they are rapidly spread and folded in the courtship 

 display." 



Frederic W. Davis writes me from Amherst, Mass., that "The 

 males arrive first in late April, followed by the females a few days 

 later. Adult and first-year males arrive together and seem about 

 equally represented throughout the breeding season. For the first 

 few days after their arrival the males are often found in small groups 

 of four to eight bh'ds. 



"Females being pursued in full flight by two courting males are a 

 common sight up through mid-May. The male whisper song is as 

 prominent a part of courtship as the male-female chase. Another 

 common courtship phenomenon is the male carrying nesting material 

 such as dead leaves to the vicinity of the female, who then manipulates 

 it. This behavior is particularly noticeable during pairing before the 

 first nesting, less so before the second. In precopulatory display the 

 female holds her back horizontal, raises her bill and tail, and utters 

 a rapid high-pitched tetetetete." 



Nesting. — F, W. Davis continues in his letter: "Site search and nest- 

 building are carried on entirely by the female, who gathers all nesting 

 materials within 60 feet of the site she chooses. Although building 

 one nest covered a 5-day span, the female devoted only a few hours 

 each day to placing the materials. The day after she finished the nest 

 she visited it but once and remained only about 2}4 minutes. She 

 came once the following day with a long piece of sedge and remained 

 almost a half hour, but did nothing to the nest. She deposited the 

 first egg the morning of the third day after nest completion. 



"Incubation may start with the second egg of the clutch, or be 

 delayed until the last egg is laid. Incubation takes 12 to 13 days. 

 Two nests per season seem to be normal ; the same mates are retained 

 and the second nests are within the original territories. The laying 

 of the first egg of the second clutch in four cases observed ranged from 

 8 to 21 days after the fledging of the first brood. A banded pair 

 whose first brood was destroyed 7 days after hatching laid the first 

 egg in a second and new nest 9 days later." 



J. S. Y. Hoyt (1948) describes a nest found June 6, 1942, in a heavily 

 wooded area near Ithaca, N.Y. It was built not more than three feet 

 from the ground between two stems of a white pine and contained 

 three young birds about 5 days old and one unhatched egg. 



