The Fox Sparrows 



monoensis or mammoihensis, ad gust.) had built laborious nests. On 

 June nth we found ourselves between seasons, with much evidence of 

 care for first broods and some symptoms of renewed interest in courtship 

 and nest-building. Of two nests we did find containing young, one 

 was placed six feet high in a dead fir sapling set in deep shadow. The 

 owner, a confiding lady clad in deepest earth-brown raiment, came and 

 went without the slightest regard for our presence. The other nest 

 was lodged on a bunch of recumbent stems a foot or more above the 

 ground. This spot was exposed to the full rays of the sun at midday, 

 and the female divided her time between efforts to decoy the stranger 

 with the great glass eye, and determined broodings, or shadings, of the 

 panting young. The male, meanwhile, hopped about me with friendly 

 curiosity, or else tried the air with song. As to any misfortune befalling 

 the children, why that was plainly impossible — between gentlemen. 

 At a later time in the same season we found nine nests, building or 

 ready for eggs — the second brood. But on the 5th of July every nest 



Taken in Mono County Photo by the Author 



"DETERMINED BROODINGS, OR SHADINGS, OF THE PANTING YOUNG" 



382 



