950 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paet 2 



substance. This was fed to each nestling, not with the pumping motion of 

 regurgitation, but rather as tho emptying the bill and mouth. 



April 19, morning: 



At 9:27, I found a bird brooding. The morning was cloudy, with cool wind. 

 The brooding bird lookt [sic] browner and I thought had more stripes on its 

 back than the bird that had brooded the eggs. The dark stripe leading from the 

 eye was also more pronounced and led me to wonder if this bird was not the 

 male. * * * 



At 10:15 I heard the note of [a] Rufous-crowned Sparrow up the hillside. 

 At 10:23 * * * the brooding bird left the nest, slipping thru the grass and making 

 his way to a weed stalk where he preened himself and gave a sharp note, a sort 

 of "sit" that I have heard given by a number of species nesting near the ground. 



Then a camera was set up and the old birds disappeared. Some 

 22 minutes later one called on the hillside and soon one appeared 

 with something in its mouth. One of the pair that was shyer than 

 the other was thought to be the female. The shyer bird 



would not go to the nest while the camera was there but flew about giving the 

 call note. When at 11:25 the other bird, which I believe was the male, came, 

 the first bird swallowed the food she carried and flew away. This last arrival 

 carried a long green worm in his bill. This he took to the nest and fed to one 

 young bird. I could see the green sticking up in the youngster's throat as he 

 still kept his mouth open * * * . Finally he gave a little swallow, the worm 

 disappeared and he closed his mouth, satisfied. The old bird rested on the edge 

 of the nest about three minutes * * * [then] flew up the hillside. Fifteen min- 

 utes later both birds came with worms. One went to the nest and fed, but one, 

 as before, would not go to the nest while the camera was there. 



At 12:25 p.m. the presumed male appeared "with an immense wasp- 

 like fly dangling from his bill, the body down and head held in mouth. 

 This was fed to more than one young. ^' 



I noted fledglings being fed by adults, or with adults in close 

 attendance, in at least six territories within my plots near Glendora 

 and San Dimas on various dates ranging from April 21 to June 7, 

 and also in the chaparral plot censused above Arcadia, on May 18, 

 1947. Nothing seems to be known of the duration of parental care 

 of fledglings. 



Plumages. — IVlrs. Myers (1909) remarks of the 1- to 1 ^-day-old 

 young in the nest she watched at Los Angeles: "The orange-skinned 

 nestlings were partially covered with tufts of black down." These 

 same young two days later "were stUl quite naked — the only indica- 

 tion that they would ever be otherwise being that the wing quills 

 were just pricking thru." 



Larry Wolf (MS.) reports that the juvenal plumage of canescens, 

 when fully acquired, averages darker than that of A. r. ruficeps, 

 especially the breast streaks, and that he can find no significant 

 differences in the postjuvenal molt of this race and that which he 

 described under A. r. ruficeps, earlier. 



I 



