BREWERS BLACKBIRD 315 



especially in the early part of the period when the female is brooding 

 the young. When two sets of nestlings were being fed by a polyg- 

 ynous male during the same hour period the combined rate for both 

 nests might equal the maximum rate for a male feeding at only one. 

 But males feeding at two nests were not observed to exceed this rate. 



Verna L. Johnston (MS.) writes concerning a nest with five young 

 at Live Oak, Calif. The nest was 15 feet above the ground in a 

 deodar tree in school grounds. Both male and female fed the young 

 at 2- to 4-minute intervals most of the time during the 9 days (May 3 

 to 12, 1945) that she watched them. "The male often fed the female, 

 sometimes on a fence from which she then flew to the nest and fed the 

 young, sometimes on the nest after feeding the young." 



At my colony nestlings that died were sometimes removed by the 

 parents. On six occasions nestlings too undeveloped to have left 

 the nest by their own exertions were found on the ground 50 or more 

 feet from the nearest nest. These bore no apparent marks of having 

 been carried by a predator. Two of these dead nestlings were actu- 

 ally seen being carried by the parents in flight and deposited. One of 

 these young, which was seen being carried by the male, was newly 

 hatched and weighed 8.29 grams. Others that were found on the 

 ground were larger. The places of deposition were those regularly 

 used to drop excreta taken from the nest: a pathway, pavement of the 

 street, and the edge of the creek. 



At the river-mouth colony, fledglings were observed to take initial 

 flight of 3, 4, and 7 feet from the nest; and juveniles were fed by the 

 male up to the 26th, and by the female to the 25th day after leaving 

 the nest. 



Females usually attempt second broods if the first is unsuccessful. 

 There have been as many as three attempts in one season. Second 

 broods have sometimes been raised even in cases when a first brood 

 has also been fledged. Two broods are frequently raised in Oregon, 

 according to Gabrielson and Jewett (1940). 



Two females at the river-mouth colony were seen carrying nesting 

 material for a second brood nest on the same day that they were still 

 feeding fledglings. One female even fed a fledgling 3 days after the 

 day on which she was first noted placing material for a second nest. 



At this colony no young were observed leaving the nest later than 

 July 7 (1943). At Bridalveil Campground, at an altitude of 7,200 

 feet, in Yosemite National Park, Calif., a pair were seen by Marshall 

 (MS.) feeding nestlings as late as July 22 (1946). 



Plumages. — Linsdale (1936b) writes that in Nevada the down of 

 the nestlings he examined was "nearly black, contrasting with the 

 whitish down of red-wings." According to Ridgway (1902) the "young" 

 [i. e., in juvenile plumage] are "very similar in coloration to winter 



