RUFOUS- WINGED SPARROW 913 



found independently by A. H. Anderson on September 10, when it 

 appeared to contain only two large young. On September 6 when I 

 rustled the bottom of the nest, the young \\'ith eyes open popped their 

 head up to be fed, but their voices were still hardly audible. 



Both parents attend and doubtless feed the young. They do not 

 regularly clean the nest, which becomes filthy. Only once did I see 

 an adult carrying a fecal sac, which it deposited on a branch. 



The young, or at least the last brood, remain with or near their 

 parents through the fall, if not the winter. One of the young banded 

 Sept. 12, 1939 was seen not far from its native bush 2}i months later 

 on November 25. 



Plumages. — There seem to be no specimens of the natal down. 

 The Juvenal plumage is of the usual streaky sparrow type, but the 

 dusky streaks below are unusually coarse. Robert Ridgway (1901) 

 describes it as: "Upper parts, including pileum, light grayish broAvn, 

 broadly streaked with blackish; lesser wing-coverts dusky centrally, 

 broadly margined wdth pale brownish buff; under parts whitish, the 

 chest and sides streaked with dusky." The head markings are at 

 first all dusky on a brownish-buff background, but rufous soon appears 

 behind the eye in the postocular streak. The u'is is a grayer brown, 

 less rusty or reddish than the tan or rufous eye of adults and the lower 

 mandible is almost wholly dusky, like the upper and not pinkish. 

 The mouth varies from flesh color to whitish; the gape is pale buffy 

 to creamy whitish. The feet are somewhat more lavender and 

 purplish-tinged than those of adults, and are sometimes even grayish. 

 The adult's feet are more pinkish or yellowish. 



The first prebasic or postjuvenal molt may occur at any time from 

 June to October or even November, depending on the date of hatch- 

 ing. It starts to replace the short-lived juvenal plumage early on the 

 anterior parts and the Ming coverts. Two young taken in swale 

 habitat on June 12, 1958, were already largely in first basic (first 

 winter) plumage, especially the male taken by Robert W. Dickerman. 

 Normally the juvenal flight feathers (except the tertials) are retained 

 as are the primary coverts and alula. It would be interesting to 

 trace the molt in early hatched birds that molt in June to see whether 

 they molt again in September or October, and if so how fully. One 

 September immature was found to be molting primaries and rectrices 

 (A. R. Phillips, 1951b). This molt produces a definitive, adultlike 

 plumage, though the sides of the head are usually a more buffy and 

 less grayish brown. The best distinguishing marks are the broader, 

 less pointed tip to the alula and the usually browner, less dusky and 

 whitish primary coverts. 



A. R. Phillips (1951b) discusses the normal (dry year) molt 

 sequence in some detail. Briefly, a prealtemate (or prenuptial) molt 

 in May and June renews the body plumage, tertials, and central 

 rectrices, even if these are juvenal rectrices. In Arizona the later 



