No. 20.] THE BIRDS OF CONNECTICUT. 335 



bia, collected during every month of the year, consists of animal 

 matter, insects with occasionally a spider or snail, 34 per cent; 

 and vegetable matter, mostly seeds, 66 per cent." 



" Of the vegetable portion (66 per cent) of the year's food, 

 3 per cent consists of ragweed, 5 per cent of grain, 16 per cent 

 of polygonum and related seeds, 24 per cent of grass seed, and 

 18 per cent of miscellaneous seeds, such as those of wild sun- 

 flower, amaranth, lamb's-quarters, clover, gromwell, rib-grass, 

 wild solanum, purslane, spurge, wood sorrel, dandelion, chick- 

 weed, dock, and sheep sorrel. The last two are seldom eaten by 

 most other birds. More polygonum seed is taken by the Song 

 Sparrow than by any other sparrow, largely because most polygo- 

 nums grow in moist places where Song Sparrows are often 

 very abundant. Several species of polygonums are weed pests 

 on low ground, and much good is done by the systematic de- 

 struction of their seeds by the Song Sparrow during every month 

 in the year. More than half the grass-seed food belongs to such 

 troublesome species as crab-grass and pigeon-grass. The bird 

 is so numerous that it must destroy large quantities of these 

 weeds. The seeds of other grasses, such as timothy, paspalum, 

 old-witch grass, barnyard grass, tall smooth panicum, spreading 

 panicum, beard grass (Andropogon), orchard grass, sheathed 

 rush grass, wild rye, wild rice, and others, form about 8 per cent 

 of the food. 



" The Song Sparrow, like the White-throated, White-crowned, 

 and Fox Sparrows, manifests a taste for fruit, especially during 

 July, when blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, 

 mulberries, and wild black cherries are eaten to the extent of 

 nearly 8 per cent of the food. This diet is largely abandoned when 

 the weed-seed harvest is mature, though the bird occasionally feeds 

 with others on the ripening crop of wild fruits during late sum- 

 mer and autumn. It has been observed eating elderberries, wild 

 grapes, pokeberries, bayberries, and berries of the woodbine ; but, 

 in spite of this taste and the bird's abundance among cultivated 

 berry patches, it never, to any appreciable extent, does any dam- 

 age to cultivated fruit. 



" Insects amount to about one-third of the animal diet, and 

 from May to August, inclusive, when they are eaten most freely, 

 compose more than half the food." 



