872 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



In southern Michigan, I have found nests with eggs as early as Apr. 

 21, 1946; Mrs. Alice D. Miller found an adult building a nest on 

 July 14, 1952; George M. Sutton found a nest with three eggs on 

 July 31, 1935 — the nest and eggs were destroyed August 6 or 7. 

 Young out of the nest have been found as early as May 11, in 1946 and 

 1949, and young have been observed to leave nests as late as Aug. 

 3, 1942 and Aug. 5, 1948. In Ohio, M. B. Trautman reports that 

 "the first young out of the nest were observed May 17 (1930, at least 

 2 young), and the last August 13 (1925, 1 young)." Cordelia J. 

 Stanwood (MS.) mentions a nest in Maine in which the first egg 

 hatched on Aug. 13, 1909. 



T. S. Roberts (1932) gives a good description of the behavior of the 

 vesper sparrow when flushed from its nest: "When it slips from the 

 nest, almost at one's feet, it frequently feigns injury * * * fluttering 

 along the ground with wide-spread tail and dragging a \ving or leg, 

 as though badly crippled. More commonly it flies directly away, 

 low over the ground * * *." Some female vesper sparrows con- 

 sistently leave a nest with eggs without feigning injury or giving 

 alarm notes and fly 50 or 60 yards to a tree, but their behavior may 

 change completely after the eggs hatch. Then the bird may run 

 along the ground with tail widely spread, so that the white feathers 

 are conspicuous, and with both wings held over the back and fluttering 

 slightly, much as some song sparrows are prone to do. 



Eggs. — The vesper sparrow usually lays from three to five eggs, and 

 sometimes six. They are ovate and have a slight gloss. The ground 

 color is creamy white or pale greenish white, with spots, blotches, 

 scrawls, and cloudings of "sorghum brown," "Verona brown," 

 "russet," or "Mars brown," and black, with undermarkings of "pale 

 mouse gray." The eggs of this species show considerable variation 

 in both type and amount of markings. Some have spots, blotches, 

 and scrawls about equally distributed over the entire surface; others 

 may have a few very dark brown or even black scrawls at the large 

 end with only a few fine spots over the rest of the egg. The markings 

 may be all in one shade of brown, or in two or three shades of brown 

 mixed with the "pale mouse gray." The measurements of 50 eggs 

 of the nominate race average 20.7 by 15.2 milHmeters; the eggs showing 

 the four extremes measure 22.9 by 16.3, 21.8 by 16.8, 18.3 by 14.7, 

 and 18.8 by 13.1 millimeters. 



While four eggs seem to constitute the usual clutch for spring nests, 

 a few five-egg clutches have been reported (Baillie and Harrington, 

 1937). M. B. Trautman (1940) found five nests wdth five eggs or 

 young and one nest that held one cowbird egg and six sparrow eggs. 

 Francis C. Evans (MS.) found the number of eggs in 96 complete 

 clutches to be: 2 eggs, 4 sets; 3 eggs, 25 sets; 4 eggs, 67 sets; the 



