[Gutenberg 36285] • Comparative Breeding Behavior of Ammospiza caudacuta and A. maritima

[...] Montagna (1940:196) decided from collecting and observations that male Sharp-tailed Sparrows either outnumbered the females or were polygamous. The results I obtained from netting seemed to indicate a surplus of males. Banding, however, showed that in the breeding season males range over a larger area than do females. With this knowledge, the discrepancy between the number of males and females captured is explainable without an unbalanced sex ratio. If the males range over an area four times as large as that of the females, theoretically, four times as many males should be caught at every placement of the net provided the net remained in place long[...].