The Song Sparrows 



cover is scarce, the bird is also; and where cover abounds, it is likely to 

 be so heavy as to make discovery difficult or well-nigh impossible. Nest- 

 ing begins ordinarily about April first, though in the extreme South nests 

 have been recorded in February. First nests are likely to be placed low, 

 either upon the ground, well covered with old vines or grasses, or else in 

 a tussock of grass in a swamp. As the season advances and cover in- 

 creases, any site near water is welcomed, — brush heaps, vine tangles, 

 dense saplings, or even trees up to twenty feet. Incubation requires only 

 twelve days and the young are ready to fly in as many more, so that a 

 devoted pair is able to raise two or three and sometimes four broods in 

 a season. 



At this rate we should be overrun with Song Sparrows if there were 

 not so many agencies to hold the species in check. A young Song Sparrow 

 is the choice morsel of everything that preys,- — cats, skunks, weasels, 

 chipmunks, foxes, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Crows, Magpies, Blue-fronted 

 Jays, and garter snakes. How would this motley company fare were it 

 not for the annual crop of Song Sparrows? And the wonder of it is that 

 the brave heart holds out and sings its song of trust and love with the 

 ruins of three nests behind it and the harvest not yet past. 



Other enemies they have, no doubt, beyond our ken. On April 7th, 

 1917, an M. C. O. collector took a singing male San Diego Song Sparrow 

 from a low stump west of Santa Barbara. Judge of our astonishment 

 to find three ticks of the common variety firmly embedded in the flesh 

 of the bird's head. The largest insect was swelled to the size of a currant, 

 and the three together would eventually, I should suppose, have caused 

 the bird's death. 



No. 62a Yakutat Song Sparrow 



A. O. U. No. 58m. Melospiza melodia caurina Ridgway. 



Description. — Adults (sexes alike) : Like the next to be described, but larger 

 and darker, the streaks of underparts and sides of breast blackish centrally, their 

 edgings dark grayish brown, the white of underparts sordid, tinged with gray. Bill 

 longer and slenderer. 



Nesting of Melospiza melodia. — Nest: A substantial structure of twigs, weed- 

 stems, grasses, coiled bark-strips, ferns, dead leaves, etc.; lined carefully with fine 

 dead grass, rootlets, or horsehair; placed indifferently in bushes or on the ground, 

 or, more rarely, in crannies, excavations in stumps, or low in trees. Eggs: 3 to 6: 

 in California usually 3 or 4; greenish-, grayish-, or bluish-white, spotted sparingly 

 or heavily or blotched with reddish browns — types exceedingly variable, but ap- 

 parently without local significance beyond the fact that those of races from arid re- 

 gions tend toward paleness, and those from humid regions toward depth and intensity 

 of color. Av. size of species about 21 x 15.5 (.83 x .61), but varies roughly with that 



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