846 U-S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 taet 2 



edged and tipped with grayish buff (lesser coverts) to ochraceous buff 

 (middle and greater coverts). Primary coverts dusky with slightly 

 paler edgings. Remiges or flight feathers dusky, becoming edged 

 with brownish buff on inner secondaries and especially on tertials. 

 Remex sheaths five to seven millimeters long. Subterminally on 

 outer web and along border of inner web of tertials the brownish buff 

 becomes pale buff. Alular coverts whitish with a grayish spot in 

 center of each feather, giving juvenile the appearance of having a 

 whitish bend of the wing. Alulae dusky with whitish edges along 

 outer webs. Under wing coverts whitish. Auricular region dark or 

 dusky with some buffy interspersed. Chin whitish. Loral region 

 and trace of superciliary stripe dull buffy. Submalar region and upper 

 breast buffy, with rather heavy, blurry streaking. Streaks largely 

 confined to upper breast but extend, in less well defined fashion, down 

 onto sides and flanks. Sides and flanks also buffy, though paler than 

 on upper breast. Lower breast and upper belly whitish; undersurface 

 becoming buffy on lower belly and crissum. Anterior crural tracts 

 buffy whitish; posterior aspect brownish gray. Feet grayish-horn 

 color." 



Lowery (1955) states that "individuals that have passed through 

 the postjuvenal molt resemble full adults but have a stronger wash of 

 buff on the breast and about the face." 



As noted previously. Red's and YeUow's nest contained three young 

 and a pipped egg the morning of April 16. In mid -morning I timed 

 one of Yellow's periods away from the nest at 15.5 minutes, while two 

 sessions on the nest were 2 and 5.5 minutes. When she flew from the 

 nest she usuaUy gave a succession of chut notes unlike the high- 

 pitched calls she gave the previous afternoon. For the race pelonota 

 Nicholson (1946) claims: "Invariably as the female rises and flies 

 from her nest the male leaves his perch and chases her uttering rapid 

 chipperings as they skim the tops of the low growth." I saw no such 

 behavior in my banded pair. Red spent considerable time near the 

 nest, but I did not see him go to it during the morning. Once near 

 the nest he scolded a red-winged blackbird with a rapidly uttered 

 series of notes, hzzt-bzzt-bzzt-bzzt-bzzt. He also spent time in other 

 parts of the territory and sang at intervals. 



Watching the nest site steadily from 2:15 to 4:33 p.m., I saw the 

 nestlings fed 11 times, 6 times by Yellow and 5 by Red, or about 4.8 

 feedings per hour, and virtually no time was spent in brooding. My 

 presence may have slowed the birds' feeding rate somewhat. They 

 always approached the nest stealthily. Several times Red made 

 arching flights over the nest before setthng down in the grass and then 

 slinking toward it. During this afternoon period YeUow flew from 

 the nest in complete silence. At 4:16 p.m., the neighboring male, 



