Comparative Breeding Behavior of Ammospiza caudacuta and A. maritimaWoolfenden, Glen Everett
Science
Comparative Breeding Behavior of Ammospiza caudacuta and A. maritima
Woolfenden, Glen Everett
Sparrows
The Seaside Sparrow is restricted to the Gulf- and Atlantic-coasts
of North America, breeding north to Massachusetts. The Sharp-tailed
Sparrow breeds south to North Carolina. The overlap of the
breeding ranges of the two species is therefore small. Furthermore
the forms breeding in the coastal states are restricted to tidal
marshes, and the geographically peripheral colonies of each species
are small. Irregular nesting is the case for the northernmost
colonies of the Seaside Sparrow, on Cape Cod (Griscom, 1944:317),
and the same is probably true for the colonies of the Sharp-tailed
Sparrow on Pea Island, North Carolina, as indicated by Montagna's
failure to locate any breeding birds in July, 1941 (Montagna, 1942b:
256). The center of overlap of the ranges of the two species is in
New Jersey where both forms are abundant and can best be studied
comparatively.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The adult sparrows were captured and banded, and sometimes the
nestlings were banded. The standard funnel trap, baited with seeds,
proved useless for capturing birds of the Genus _Ammospiza_,
although migrant Savannah Sparrows (_Passerculus sandwichensis_)
readily entered. A Japanese bird net, twenty-five feet long, was
used successfully. Eighty-five Sharp-tailed Sparrows and forty
Seaside Sparrows were banded at two localities.
All of the adult sparrows were banded with United States Fish and
Wildlife Service numbered bands and colored celluloid bands. The
colored bands I used were obtained from the Hinton Supply Company
of New York City, which manufactures them for cage birds. The firm
makes them in seven colors, sold at reasonable prices. With seven
colors, the number of combinations, using only one colored band and
one aluminum band per bird, is forty-two.
In addition, I dyed many adults and all nestlings. Alcoholic
solutions of Victoria Blue B S concentrate and Alizarine Red S
concentrate were used. The males were dyed red, the females blue;
various areas of the body were colored in order further to
individualize the birds. Although the dyes disappeared in less than
a month, the markings were helpful on many occasions.
When an adult bird was captured I always sexed it and ordinarily
weighed and measured it. The nestlings were weighed and measured
daily at intervals of 24 hours. I built a corral of hardware cloth
around one Sharp-tailed Sparrow nest in order to measure the young
after they left the nest. The sex of any adult was ascertained by
examining the cloacal area, as described by Salt (1954:61-75). Sex
as determined by this method was corroborated by internal
examination of the specimens collected.
A pan balance accurate to one-tenth of a gram was used for
weighing. The adults were weighed in a cloth sack, the sack being
weighed each time to prevent error owing to variable moisture and
other factors.
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