NORTHERN SAGE SPARROW 1007 



a second effort, was recorded by E. R. Hall 13 miles north of Montello, 

 5,000 feet altitude, Elko County, Nev., on July 17; the nest held 3 

 eggs. 



Walter P. Taylor (1912) writes that the nests above ground level 

 were "variously supported, as a rule being built into the body of the 

 bush so that the foundation was firm, although in some cases the 

 attachment was not so secure. Materials worked into the several 

 nests included dry sage twigs and sticks; in the linings, wool, 

 dried grass, weed stalks, weed seeds, cowhair, and rabbit fur." The 

 nest I found near Prineville was not well concealed in the bush, but it 

 was partly screened from the sun. It was made of grass and bark 

 shreds, with some wool in the lining. The whole nest was larger and 

 thicker-walled than those of Brewer's sparrows and contained none 

 of the coarse hair found in the nest lining of the latter species. 



James B. DLxon writes me that a nest found at June lake. Mono 

 County, Calif., on June 17 was in a bitter bush clipped down by feed- 

 ing sheep, and was composed outwardly of bark strips from the bitter 

 bushes and sagebrush and inwardly of fine bark with a few tufts of 

 sheeps' wool — a favorite lining. 



A representative nest from Nye County, Nev., in the collection of 

 the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has a scant outer frame of % inch 

 Artemisia sticks and dry flowering stalks of annual plants, a core struc- 

 ture of grass stems and shredded bark, finer toward the interior, and 

 a fining of rabbit fur and fine shreds of bark. The nest cups of five 

 nests are 2^ inches across and 1 inch deep; outside dimensions are 4 

 to 7 inches across and 2 to 2K inches deep, varying in accordance with 

 the amount of outside framework developed for a particular place in 

 the supporting bush. 



Russell W. Hendee (1929) reporting on sage sparrows in Mofi'at 

 County, Colo., says that "Most of the nests were in sage bushes about 

 a foot from the ground, but many were on the ground under the bushes. 

 The nests were made of grass and lined with feathers and in some cases 

 wool. The last set of fresh eggs was found on June 25." The first 

 eggs were found there on May 20. 



Jean M. Linsdale (1938) discovered the nest he reported on in the 

 Smoky Valley of Nevada on May 26 when a parent flushed at 4 feet. 

 The bird "fluttered sfightly and moved off, close to the ground, half 

 running for 10 feet and then running for another 10 feet. It stayed 

 within 25 feet of the nest for 3 or 4 minutes and then flew off. * * * 

 During this interval the bird was quiet most of the time. It began 

 to feed as it walked over the ground, part of the time picking off ob- 

 jects from the lower leaves of sage bushes." On May 27 the third 

 egg of the set in this nest had been laid and the incubating sparrow 

 then sat very closely. Thus on May 28 it "would not leave the nest 



646-737 — 68— pt. 2 27 



