312 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



strate the value of these birds to the agriculturist — a value 

 greater than that of any other group of birds whose economic 

 status has thus far been investigated. The native Sparrows con- 

 trast markedly in this respect with the introduced English 

 Sparrow, the pernicious habits of which have formed the subject 

 of a special report, and are briefly treated in this bulletin for 

 purposes of comparison. This naturalized Sparrow is a pest 

 wherever it is found, while the native Sparrows are well worthy 

 of protection and encouragement. 



" The great bulk of the food of Sparrows and other small 

 passerine (or perching) birds consists of fruit, seeds, and insects. 

 The fruit may be wild berries taken from shrubs or trees of no 

 economic importance, with little economic result whether the bird 

 eats much or little ; or it may be cultivated fruit, in which case, 

 of course, it is desirable to know the amount destroyed. 



" The seed element is of particular interest only when it 

 shows destruction of grain and weeds. Injury to grain or fruit 

 by birds is usually the most prominent and often the only fact 

 of economic ornithology possessed by the layman ; yet com- 

 paratively few birds harm either of these crops, while many 

 species render important service to agriculture by destroying 

 weed seed. As has been aptly said, a weed is a plant out of place. 

 Certain plants seem to have formed a habit of constantly getting 

 out of place and installing themselves in cultivated ground, but 

 whether actually among crops or in adjacent waste land, from 

 which they can spread to cultivated soil, they are always a menace. 

 In the garden they occupy the room allotted to useful plants, and 

 appropriate their light, water, and food. Any check on these 

 noxious interlopers, a million of which can spring up on a single 

 acre, will not only lessen nature's chance of populating the soil 

 with worse than useless species, but will enable the farmer to 

 attain greater success with cultivated crops. The hoe and cul- 

 tivator will do much to eradicate them, but some will always 

 succeed in ripening a multitude of seeds to sprout the following 

 season. Certain garden weeds produce an incredible number of 

 seeds. A single plant of one of these species, as purslane, for 

 instance, may mature as many as 100,000 seeds in a season, and 

 these, if unchecked, would produce in a few years a number of 

 weeds utterly beyond comprehension. The habits of some of the 



