IPSWICH SPARROW 663 



With permission of the Canadian Board of Transport "(o study the 

 nestmg gi-ound of the Ipswich sparrow," I sailed to Sable Island on 

 the supply ship Lady Laurier out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 29, 

 1948, and returned August 2. I found that conditions had changed 

 somewhat since Dwight's and Saunders's time. There had been no 

 cows or sheep on the island for many years, but an estimated 200 to 

 300 wild horses were then roaming over it. On this visit I found the 

 Ipswich sparrow still in a state of breeding agitation in one or two 

 locations, although apparently practically at the end of its nesting 

 season elsewhere. The terraced, horse-trodden paths and the well- 

 vegetated hillsides sloping down to the some half-dozen small ponds 

 3 or 4 miles from the western end were attractively dotted with pink 

 wild roses facing upward, barely 2 or 3 inches out of the sand. Flower- 

 ing meadow rue, some 2 feet tall, stood above the vegetation, and the 

 attractive little yellow-flowering silver weed {Potentilla anserina) 

 blossomed in damp places. The low vegetation hugs the contour of 

 the treeless island. Stunted blueberry and bayberry bordering the 

 higher terraces and the crowberry growing profusely in strung-out 

 tracts emphasize these more strongly. I found one nesting site in 

 stunted blueberry beside a foot path. 



The enthe area, which the inhabitants regarded as a very favorable 

 one for nesting, was still frequented by agitated birds on August 1. 

 Ipswich sparrows were still bobbing and twisting in the stunted 

 growth around the ponds the same way Dwight (1895) and Saunders 

 (1902) described them during their visits in May and June. I saw 

 one adult bird carrying food and found some young in the last stages 

 of parental care. The incessant tsick of the agitated adults was 

 dehvered at a very fast tempo, one adult being timed at 132 times a 

 minute. On all sides about the ponds were Ipswich sparrows, a 

 dozen or more being in ev^idence at a time. Some of these were young 

 birds, and many adults, apparently finished nesting, occasionally 

 drifted out on the dunes and perched in little groups on the nearby 

 telephone wire or on the poles. The incessant chipping of the agitated 

 birds began before a near approach was made to the turfy tracts and 

 lasted as long as one lingered in the neighborhood. 



The Ipswich sparrows were more plentiful and more closely as- 

 sociated here than I have ever found Savannah sparrows on the main- 

 land or Long Island. Their agitation also seemed greater and the 

 tempo of their call notes faster. Except around these ponds and in a 

 favorable tract around the superintendent's house and small garden, 

 observations elsewhere on the island, especially eastward, revealed 

 practically no nesting activity. 



Eggs. — Saunders (1902a) took seven sets of eggs during his May 

 visit; four nests contained five eggs and the remaining three contained 



