° 1918 J Perry, Vesper Sparrow and Hermit Thrush. 311 



was of a very different character. It had been cleared of the origi- 

 nal forest of pines, and further denuded by forest fires. The ground 

 was still strewn with charred logs and stumps. Here and there a 

 tall, charred skeleton of a tree trunk towered high in the air. The 

 living vegetation consisted of scattered tufts of blue grass ; shrubby 

 growths of aspen, huckleberry, sumac, and bracken, and a few 

 taller trees of oak, aspen, and maple. One of the two nests that I 

 observed was quite well hidden by a small blackberry bush, some 

 tall blue grass, and a few brackens; the other was under the 

 drooping branches of a sumac. 



Previous to the hatching, I used to visit the nests every day. 

 They were simple structures consisting of shallow basins in the 

 earth, made by the sparrows themselves; a coarse lining of the 

 stems of bracken; and a softer lining of blue grass. Four white, 

 brown-blotched eggs were laid in each nest. Only three of the 

 four eggs hatched in each. 



As soon as the first bird began to peck its way out of the shell, 

 I devoted from six to nine hours a day for eight days to observation. 

 I used as a point of vantage a blind, or tent, four feet square, 

 pitched within about thirty inches of the nests under observation. 

 I had cut a slit three or four inches long in the side toward the nests 

 for an observation window, and another, lower down, for the 

 protrusion of the camera lens. I had to avoid making the slightest 

 noise or any movement across the window. 



In order to determine the duties of the different sexes, I tried to 

 distinguish the male from the female; but that is not an easy 

 matter when the plumages are practically identical. After a day 

 or two, however, I found that I could differentiate the parents by 

 the shade of the back feathers, or the loss of such prominent ones 

 as the white outer tail feathers. I am not sure that my distinction 

 of the sexes was correct, but I give the results of my observation 

 according to that distinction. 



From the first the sparrows were clean nest-keepers. Their 

 work began as soon as the young cast aside the shells. These were 

 not allowed to litter the nest, nor were they scattered carelessly 

 about. They were simply eaten by the parents while at the nest. 

 One parent did take a shell some few feet away from the nest before 

 eating it. The shell seemed brittle and broke into many fine bits. 

 These were all carefully picked up. Ants were numerous and 



