OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 317 



fowls are being feel and deliberately cheat them 

 out of their proper allowances. Our smaller winter 

 residents are compelled to keep at a wary dis- 

 tance, and only venture to peck a few grains 

 during the temporary absence of the sparrows. 

 In early spring Passcrclla iliaca occasionally fre- 

 quents similar situations, and although a rather 

 large bird, is compelled to give way before the 

 pugnacious little creatures. 



Its food is chiefly obtained upon the ground, but 

 occasionally it visits small trees and shrubs to 

 procure it. In the winter it derives a rather pre- 

 carious subsistence from the seeds of our com- 

 monest weeds and grasses, and the crumb, and 

 scraps which it finds about our doors. It is not at 

 all fastidious in its appetite. Within city limits 

 numbers may be seen in our principal thorough- 

 fares, searching within the excrement of horses 

 for whatever of nutrient qualities may be found 

 therein. The principal seeds which conduce to 

 its sustenance are those of Chenopod^iiin album, 

 Auiaraiitus hybridus, A. albas, A. pa<iuii!aliis, 

 Runic x sanguineus, Ambrosia- artciiiisiccfolia, and 

 man)- of the asters and solidagos. In the months 

 of April and May the ilowers of ^Accr rubnim, A. 

 saccJiarinuni, besides Ccrasus and Pynts, and many 

 of our herbaceous plants. Among insects we 

 have discovered traces of Harpalus pensylvanuus^ 

 H. compar, Casnonia pennsylvanica, and Formica 

 sanguinca, in many stomachs which we have ex- 

 amined. It is only while with young that the 



