EASTERN AND CANADIAN CHIPPING SPARROWS 1171 



were lower than 6 feet and 11 (13.3 percent) were higher than 11 feet. 

 Eighteen of these nests were found between May 17 and June 8 

 by following individual birds until they flew to their nests instead of 

 searching in what might be considered the most hkely places. Of 

 the 18, eight were higher than 10 feet, three were between 19,'^ feet 

 and 25K feet and five were between 30 and 36 feet. Of these last 

 five, three were within 8 feet of the top of 35' and 40-foot spruces 

 and firs. In the summer of 1956 Robert Galati found two chippinw 

 sparrow nests near the tops of black spruce trees in a matiu-e black 

 spruce bog in Itasca State Park — one was 56.5 feet from the ground 

 in a 58. 5-foot tree, the other at 54.5 feet in a 56-foot spruce. They 

 were 70 feet apart and were both being built on July 2 when Galati 

 fu'st observed them. He later witnessed a territorial dispute that 

 began 30 feet up in a dead black spruce and ended with the combatants 

 roUing on the gi'ound. Maurice Broun reports two high nests at 

 Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Pa., one 30 feet up in the top of a maple 

 overgrown with grape vines, and a second 50 feet from the ground 

 in the top of an oak. 



Walkinshaw (1944b) found that the average nesting height became 

 progressively higher during the summer; 15 May nests averaged 

 3.6 feet from the gTound, five June nests averaged 5.0 feet, and 

 seven July nests averaged 7.5 feet. 



Eggs. — The chipping sparrow usually lays four eggs, but sometimes 

 only three or as many as five. They are slightly glossy, and ovate 

 with some tending to short ovate. The ground is "bluish glaucous" 

 or "Etain blue," with speckles, spots, blotches, and a few scrawls of 

 dark browns such as "auburn," "Brussels bro^vn", "Argus broAvn", 

 "mummy brouTi", or "snuff brown", and black, \\ath undermarkings 

 of "pale neutral gray." They are rather sparingly marked, and most 

 of the spots are confined to the large end where they frequently form a 

 loose wreath. This wreath may be of very small spots or quite long 

 interlacing scrawls. In most instances the spots are rather sharply 

 defined and in many cases the undermarkings are absent. Oc- 

 casionally an egg will be unmarked. A set of three eggs in the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History is pure white and unspotted. The 

 measurements of 90 eggs average 17.6 by 12.9 millimeters; the eggs 

 sho\dng the four extremes measure SO.S by 12.7, 16.8 by 15.2, 15.2 

 by 12.5, and 16.8 by i^.;^ millimeters. 



The first egg is laid on the morning following completion of the 

 nest. One egg is laid each morning usually before 7:00 a.m., though 

 sometimes later (Walkinshaw, 1952) until the clutch is complete. 

 In most cases four eggs complete the set ; three-egg sets are common, 

 and clutches of two and five are rare. 



