12 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



Probably the English sparrow raises regularly two broods of young 

 in a season and often three, but it is doubtful if more than three are 

 often raised. Reports of four or five broods have not been definitely 

 proven, so far as we know. Weaver (1943) suggests: "Since one 

 individual nest may be used by three or more different females in 

 one season, the actual number of broods raised by one female in a 

 season is questionable. Two banded females are known to have 

 raised but two complete broods in one season while one nest site is 

 known to have been used four times with three successful broods. 

 Therefore, it is suspected that the large number of broods claimed 

 by some writers may refer to clutches per nest site rather than broods 

 per female." 



When a nest is robbed or destroyed, however, the sparrows lose 

 no time in making another attempt to raise a brood. Murray writes 

 to me: "I tore a nest out of a hole on April 11, and 26 days later, 

 on May 7, the pair had two young and two eggs ready to hatch." 



Barrows (1889) quotes Otto Widmann as saying: "A Sparrow never 

 deserts its brood. If one of the parents is killed, the other will do 

 all the work alone. If a young one happens to fall down from the 

 lofty nest, it is not lost; the parents feed it, shelter, and defend it. 

 If a young Sparrow is taken from the nest and placed in a cage, the 

 mother feeds it for days and weeks, even if she has to enter a room to 

 get to it." 



Plumages. — Both sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage, which 

 Dwight (1900) describes as follows: "Above, hair-brown somewhat 

 buffy, wings and tail slightly darker, and streaked broadly with clove- 

 brown on the back; secondaries, tertiaries and wing coverts edged 

 with wood-brown. Below, mouse-gray, darkest across jugulum 

 and on the sides, the chin and mid-abdomen nearly white. A dusky 

 postocular stripe." 



A complete postjuvenal molt takes place about 5 weeks after the 

 young bird leaves the nest, at which the male acquires the black throat 

 and becomes practically indistinguishable from the adult. Dwight 

 (1900) describes this handsome plumage as follows: 



Pileum, rump and upper tail coverts smoke-gray, the feathers brownish edged 

 and dusky basally. The back streaked with black each feather partly Mar's- 

 brown and edged with buff. Below, dull white tinged with French-gray on throat 

 and sides, the feather tips with buffy wash, the shafts faintly grayish; the chin 

 and throat, loral and postocular stripe, black veiled with grayish or buffy edgings; 

 sides of chin and throat and mid-abdomen nearly white; auriculars olive-gray; 

 posterior part of superciliary line, postauricular and nuchal regions chestnut 

 veiled with buff edgings. Wings and tail dull black edged with pale cinnamon, 

 rich chestnut on the greater and lesser coverts, the median coverts white, buff edged 

 forming a wing band. 



