WHITE-CBOWNED SPARBOWS 449 



During the nesting season the White-crowns are in pairs, each pair 

 occupying a separate and well-defined small area in the willows; but at 

 other seasons they associate in loose flocks. This is true of the Hudsonian 

 White-crowns in early fall before they migrate southward and of the 

 Intermediate Sparrows throughout their stay in our latitude. 



The song of the Hudsonian White-crowned Sparrow is a fairly loud 

 clear lay, which carries well over the open meadows at the higher altitudes. 

 The traveler may often hear a song long before getting close enough to 

 see the performer. One transcription of the song, wTitten in the field, is 

 as follows: we chee' ah weeeee ah; the last syllable is sometimes omitted. 

 The theme is brief and unvaried. The White-crown, like several of its 

 close relatives, occasionally sings at night. Both male and female utter 

 a sharp call note, peenk, and this is repeated frequently when the birds 

 are disturbed. At late dusk they are especially active in their favorite 

 willow thickets and the call notes are given many times ere the birds settle 

 down for the night. Seasonally the song is heard from the time the first 

 migrants arrive up until early July. During the molting season they are 

 quiet. By the end of August some have completed the renewal of their 

 feathers, and songs of a more or less fragmentary character are given from 

 then on until they depart southward for the winter. 



The song of the Intermediate Sparrow may be heard in the foothills 

 from time to time during the winter months, but it is then often incom- 

 plete. While to the trained ear distinct, it resembles that of the Hudsonian 

 White-crown so much that a person having heard either one readily recog- 

 nizes the song of the other as that of a closely related bird. 



Nests of the Hudsonian White-crown are not diffcult to locate, for the 

 birds are quick to set up a disturbance whenever their home sites are 

 approached. On June 25, 1916, at the Farrington Ranch near Mono Lake 

 a nest with 4 eggs was discovered, sunk even with the surface of the ground 

 beneath a willow bush in a meadow. It was made of rootlets and grass, 

 with a lining of black horsehair. Outside, the diameter was about 4 inches 

 and the height (after removal of the nest), 2i/4 inches; while inside the 

 diameter was 2i/4 inches and the depth at the center about 1% inches. 

 The 4 eggs were well advanced in incubation. At Tuolumne Meadows 

 on July 5, 1915, a nest was found 12 inches above the ground in a willow 

 shrub close to the river bank. It contained three young birds about half- 

 grown, and the parents evinced great solicitude during our examination 

 of the nest. A week later these young had left the nest but were evidently 

 still in the vicinity, for whenever we approached the place the old birds 

 exhibited marked concern. 



The Juvenal Hudsonian White-crowned Sparrows wear a much more 

 streaked pattern of coloration than their parents, the breast as well as 



