EASTERN VESPER SPARROW 875 



second (and third) broods or that, quite independently of age, all 

 young birds of a given summer begin their postjuvenal molt more or 

 less simultaneously." He found that the postjuvenal molt usually 

 involves "only the body plumage," but that it "occasionally involves 

 the outermost primary, but not the other remiges or the rectrices." 



J. D wight (1900) comments that the "sexes are practically alike in 

 all plumages, although the colors will average duller in the female, and 

 the moults are the same." He adds that the first nuptial plumage is 

 "acquired by wear which is marked and produces a brown-streaked 

 plumage. The buffs and browns are largely lost. A few new feathers 

 may be assumed about the chin in spring, but there is no evidence of a 

 moult." The adult winter plumage is "acquired by a complete post- 

 nuptial moult beginning in mid-August. Practically indistinguishable 

 from first winter dress, sometimes paler below, the tertiary edgings 

 rather darker." 



Food. — E. H. Forbush (1929) wTites that the food of the vesper 

 sparrow "consists of nearly one-third animal matter, chiefly in- 

 sects, * * * including many first-class pests such as weevils, click 

 beetles, grasshoppers, locusts, cut-worms, army-worms and moths of 

 destructive species." T. S. Roberts (1932) states that "Among the 

 seeds taken (about one-third the entire food) are ragweed, purslane, 

 wild sunflower, lamb's quarters, pigeon- and crab-grass, knotweeds, 

 and grain (mostly waste)." 



Behavior. — Field ornithologists often observe the vesper sparrow's 

 propensity for taking dust baths. This behavior is well described by 

 G. M. Sutton (MS.) who ^^Tites: 



"The most distinctive attribute of the vesper sparrow is, perhaps, 

 its liking for dust baths. Young vesper sparrows which I reared in 

 captivity in 1935 and 1940 bathed in dust almost daily (Sutton, 1943: 

 4), whereas young field sparrows, Henslow's spari'ows, indigo buntings, 

 and cardinals never did. Noncaptive vesper sparrows, both young 

 and adult, take dust baths frequently. A common phenomenon of 

 the Edwin S. George Reserve in midsummer is dust puffing out from 

 the plumage of vesper sparrows surprised into sudden flight along a 

 road; another is vesper sparrow tracks leading up and down the ruts 

 to and from little basins of dust in which the birds have bathed. 



"A favorite haunt of the vesper sparrow in midsimimer is a flat 

 stretch of road in the very middle of the Reserve. The birds do not 

 flock here — they fly up singly or in twos or threes — but the place is 

 obviously attractive to them. Food is abundant in the form of seeds 

 and insects. The habitat is open, the only trees being widely scattered 

 elms, oaks, and small cedars. Mullein is fairly common. Under the 

 broad leaves of this plant the birds find shade when the sun is very hot. 

 Best of all is the road itself, with its clear-cut, dust-filled ruts, some of 



