LARK SPARROW 887 



Lake Tcxoma, Okla., where the bii'ds were abundant during the 

 summer of 1957. David ¥. Parmclce of Kansas State Teachers 

 College, Emporia, Kans., helped with much of the field work 

 George M. Sutton of the Universitj^ of Oklahoma contributed many- 

 valuable suggestions. The work was financed by a National Science 

 Foundation grant. 



Spring. — The series of specimens in the University of Oklahoma 

 collections shows the males return from the wintering grounds con- 

 siderably in advance of the females. The earliest female w^as col- 

 lected May 19; 2 March specimens and 19 taken in April are all males. 

 G. M. Sutton recorded in his notes the arrival of a flock of about 

 30 singing males near Norman, Okla., on April 6. When I began my 

 study at Lake Texoma on June 2, both sexes were plentiful in the 

 study area. 



Courtship. — The male lark sparrow's courtship involv^es much 

 strutting, singing, chasing, and fighting. E. S. Cameron (1908) 

 wTites of Montana birds, "Lark Sparrows arrive early in May, and 

 are the most pugnacious little birds I have ever seen. The cocks 

 fight on the ground or in the air indifferently, and are then so oblivious 

 to their surroundings that five or six fighting on the wing have nearly 

 hit me in the face." 



T. S. Roberts (1936) remarks from Minnesota: 



During the mating- and early nesting-season the male is a perfect little turkey- 

 cock, spending much time parading around on the ground with his tail fully 

 spread and wings trailing, bubbling over with fragments of song, and seeming 

 at times fairly bursting with emotion as he displays his charms before his mate or, 

 vibrating with rage, dashes after some intruding male. Combats are frequent 

 often in mid-air, when little can be made out except a whirling mass of three or 

 four infuriated Finches darting and dashing at one another with white tail- 

 feathers flashing on all sides and angry bits of song coming from the contestants 

 now and again. In one such battle * * * four males were engaged, and, after 

 a fierce and lengthy bout in the air, they all came to the ground in a perfect 

 whirl of confused motion, and in an instant the tiny maelstrom was over. 



Anne L. LeSassier ^\Tites (in litt.) of lark sparrows courting near 

 Midland, Texas: "On April 29 nine males were alternately singing and 

 disputing in the cemetery. The disputes usually started when one of 

 of the more aggressive birds attacked another who wandered into his 

 territory by flying at him on the ground from a tombstone or low 

 limb. Both then flew around the low bushes in the cemetery, often 

 joined by other lark sparrows until as many as five might be chasing 

 one another round and round. At the end of the chase the con- 

 testants paraded up and down the tombstones and cement curbs with 

 heads and tails held very 6rect and occasionally spreading their tails 

 to show the white outer feathers. The parading and posturing 

 dwindled as one and another sparrow began feeding." 



