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



On a number of occasions I saw the male come near the nest with 

 food in his bill and chirp in plain sight of the female for several minutes 

 until she left the nest and joined him. He then ate the food himself 

 and the pair flew off to a feeding area. This performance seemed to 

 occur more frequently toward the end of incubation, and never did I 

 see the male feed or offer food to the female when she left the nest. 



When the female is flushed from a ground nest she usually feigns 

 injury and runs along the ground with her tail spread, fluttering one 

 or both wings and chirping softly. If her nest is in a shrub or tree 

 she is less likely to feign injury, but perches near by and utters sharp 

 alarm notes that soon summon the male. 



E. S. Cameron (1908) states that the female incubates about 12 

 days. At four Texoma nests I timed, marking each egg with pencil 

 the morning it was laid, the maximum possible elapsed times from the 

 laying of the last egg until it hatched were 11 days 13 hours, 1 1 days 

 lOK hours, 11 days 10 minutes, and 10 days 23% hours. The fourth 

 nest with the shortest incubation time was in an open cotton field. 

 Since it was only partly shaded by a lone broad-leaved plant, the 

 female spent long stretches on the nest throughout the incubation 

 period. 



Eggs often pipped a fuU 24 hours before they actually hatched. In 

 each of the several eggs I watched hatch the process appeared identi- 

 cal — the young bird cut through the shell in a straight line around 

 the widest part of the egg, then pushed the two halves apart. 



Young. — Both parents care for the j^oung from the moment they 

 hatch. On July 15 1 saw a male with food in his bill return to a nest 

 that contained two eggs and one young bird 2 hours old. After 

 perching near the nest and chirping for about 5 minutes, the male 

 flew to the nest and presented the food to the female, who fed it to 

 the young bird. Later in the day he returned to the nest during the 

 female's absence and fed the nestling. Both these adults were color- 

 banded, which facilitated recognizing them as they cared for the 

 young. 



At another nest where the adults were color-banded, the male fed 

 the young four times on the day they hatched and the female fed them 

 three times in a 2}^-hour period. In addition, during 45 minutes of 

 this period the female brooded the young and the male brought food 

 to the nest three times and presented it to the female, who in turn fed 

 the young; thus, they were fed 10 times in 2}^ hoiu-s. 



At a nest with young in Michigan, F. N. Wilson (1931) pressed down 

 the surrounding vegetation to allow sunlight to reach the nest for 

 photography. When the birds returned, the female stayed at the 

 nest to shade the nestlings. The male brought food to her, some of 

 which she fed to the young; the rest she ate herself. 



