Part 27

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (3.9, 3-5; 21). Clutches in May are larger than those in June and July.

Nests are placed in forks and crotches about three feet high in dogwood, willow, rose, coralberry, cottonwood, and thistles.

=Hooded Warbler=: Wilsonia citrina (Boddaert).--This warbler is a rare summer resident in eastern Kansas, in wet, open woodland. Specimens (a total of four) taken in the breeding season are from Leavenworth and Shawnee counties, and the one nesting record is from Anderson County.

Breeding schedule.--Eggs are laid at least in May.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is about 4 eggs.

Nests are low (some as high as six feet) in woody vegetation.

=American Redstart=: Setophaga ruticilla ruticilla (Linnaeus).--This summer resident occurs locally in woodlands east from stations in Cloud and Sumner Counties. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 17.

Breeding schedule.--Eggs are laid in May and June.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is about 4 eggs (Davie, 1898), but there are two records of 5 in Kansas. Nests are placed six to 30 feet high, but usually about 12 feet, in forks or saddled on a branch, in deciduous trees.

=House Sparrow=: Passer domesticus (Linnaeus).--This sparrow, introduced from stocks in Ohio and New York (originally from England and Germany), has been present since about 1876 in eastern Kansas; it is a common resident in towns and at farmsteads throughout the state.

Nomenclaturally, House Sparrows in North America consistently have been referred to the European ancestral stocks, P. d. domesticus, but none in North America today duplicates morphologically the European birds. This is evidence of meaningful adaptation of the North American populations to environments in which they now live, and continued use of P. d. domesticus is misleading. Studies on local differentiation in North American House Sparrows are in progress, and when the biology of sparrows in the midwest is better understood, suitable nomenclatural proposals will be made.

Breeding schedule.--Fifty-one records of breeding span the period March 20 to July 20 (Fig. 8); the modal date for laying of first clutches is April 5, and for second clutches May 5.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (3.9, 3-7; 13).

Nests are placed in niches of various sorts seven to 50 feet high in buildings, nestboxes, and trees, or freely situated in forks and crotches of large trees.

=Bobolink=: Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linnaeus).--This species is a rare and local summer resident, in and about grassy meadows. There are but two stations of breeding in Kansas: Jamestown State Lake, Cloud County, and Big Salt Marsh, Stafford County. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 18.

Breeding schedule.--Eggs are laid in June.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is about 5 eggs.

Nests are placed on the ground amidst grasses.

=Eastern Meadowlark=: Sturnella magna (Linnaeus).--This summer resident and resident is common in eastern Kansas, in moist grassland. S. m. argutula Bangs occurs in Montgomery, Labette, and Cherokee counties and intergrades to the north and west with S. m. magna (Linnaeus). Good numbers of birds are found east of the Flint Hills, but to the west the species is of restricted and local distribution. Extreme outliers of the species are found no farther west than stations in Jewell, Stafford, and Barber counties.

Breeding schedule.--Forty records of breeding span the period April 10 to July 20 (Fig. 8); the modal date for egg-laying is May 5. Fifty-seven per cent of all eggs are laid in the period May 1 to 20.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 5 eggs (5.2, 4-7; 26). Prior to May 11, clutch-size is 5.3 eggs (13 records), and after that date it is 5.1 eggs (13 records).

Nests are placed on the ground, with cover of grasses or forbs.

=Western Meadowlark=: Sturnella neglecta neglecta (Audubon).--This is a common resident and summer resident in western Kansas, and is restricted and local in the east; preferred habitat is in grassy uplands.

Breeding schedule.--Twenty-three records of breeding span the period April 10 to July 30 (Fig. 8); the modal date for egg-laying is May 5 for first nests and June 5 for second nests.

Number of eggs.--Clutch-size is 4 eggs (4.3, 3-6; 16).

Nests are placed on the ground with cover of grasses or forbs.

=Yellow-headed Blackbird=: Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonaparte).--This uncommon and local summer resident occurs chiefly in the west, in marshes. Nesting records are from Wallace, Meade, Barton, Stafford, Doniphan, and Douglas counties. Temporal occurrence is indicated in Table 18.

Breeding schedule.--Fifty-one records of breeding span the period May 20 to June 30; the modal date of egg-laying is June 5. The sample is probably not large enough to be wholly reliable.