OLD CROW 239 



A few fox sparrows, known by the Indians as Tcheekeekak^ were 

 seen in the willow-alder brush near the village on May 14 and 15 

 and on May 16 numbers were singing and vigorously repelling inva- 

 sions of the territory they had assumed. On May 17 the numbers had 

 increased, there was much local flying as invasions were made and 

 repelled, and on May 18 it seemed that the area was saturated. The 

 quarreling persisted, and evidently extra males were seeking terri- 

 tories; an hour after one had been shot while singing, another was 

 singing on the same willow. By May 20 there was little disorder and 

 much placid singing. 



On May 24, fox, Gambel's, and tree sparrows were very common 

 in the willow-and-alder brush about the village and along the river. 

 Fox sparrows were found wherever the spruce was thin in swamps 

 or on slopes, usually in willow brush. They were seen on the moun- 

 tain as high as the brush was still continuous at about 1,700 feet. 



Males were not far ahead of females in arriving, for the first male 

 was collected only two days before the earliest female specimen was 

 taken. Two sets of eggs with four eggs each and four sets of nestlings 

 were examined and two young birds were captured when just able to 

 fly and recently fledged. The degree of their development was esti- 

 mated on the basis of the scale observed by Oakeson (1954) in white- 

 crowned sparrows at Mountain Village, viz., eggs laid one day apart, 

 but with incubation twelve days and nestling stage ten days as we 

 found among tree sparrows at Anaktuvuk (Irving and Krog, 1956) . 

 Using these figures for calculation implies that the most advanced 

 nesting birds developed from clutches for which the first egg had been 

 laid May 20 (see fig. 20, in the Appendix). 



Two sets of eggs were started 6 days after the first male arrived 

 and the average interval between first arrival and first laying was 

 8 days in seven of the eight nests. For the first male observed on 

 May 14 to have taken a territory and a mate which could prepare 

 a nest and egg within 6 days is rapid progress in those complicated 

 social and marital processes. Other evidence points to the earliness 

 of fox sparrows' laying at Old Crow. In four female specimens 

 taken eggs were measured as 3 mm. on May 16, 9.5 mm. on May 20, 

 7 mm. on May 22, and 3 mm. on May 22. A brood patch was remarked 

 on a female on June 1. 



The arrival of fox sparrows is made conspicuous by their songs, 

 the flashing of their bright rusty color in flight through the gray 

 willows, and the vigorous demonstrations of the males in taking 

 nesting places. Four observers in the scientific party were daily 

 searching for birds in the habitat about the village where fox sparrows 

 were very numerous, and earlier reports of the observant Indians 

 coincided with our first sight of common species within a day. The 



