332 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [BulL 



Sparrow feeds entirely upon seeds of weeds ; and probably each 

 bird consumes about one-fourth of an ounce a day. In an article 

 contributed to the Nezv York Tribune in 1881 the writer estimated 

 the amount of weed seed annually destroyed by these birds in 

 the State of Iowa. Upon the basis of one-fourth of an ounce of 

 seed eaten daily by each bird, and supposing that the birds 

 average ten to each square mile, and that they remain in their 

 winter range two hundred days, we shall have a total of 1,750,000 

 pounds, or 875 tons, of weed seed consumed by this one species 

 in a single season. Large as these figures may seem, they cer- 

 tainly fall far short of the reality. The estimate of ten birds to a 

 square mile is much within the truth, for the Tree Sparrow is 

 certainly more abundant than this in winter in Massachusetts^ 

 where the food supply is less than in the western states, and I 

 have known places in Iowa where several thousand could be 

 seen within the space of a few acres. This estimate, moreover, 

 is for a single species, while, as a matter of fact, there are at 

 least half a dozen birds (not all sparrows) that habitually feed 

 on these seeds during winter." (Beal, " Some Common Birds 

 in their Relation to Agriculture.") 



In the summer the Chipping and Field Sparrows {Spizella 

 passerina passerina and Spizella pusilla) take the place of the 

 Tree Sparrows, and eat also large numbers of noxious insects. 

 The former is known to eat the cankerworm, horse-tail moth, 

 gypsy moth, army worm, forest tent caterpillar, cabbage worm, 

 and pea louse. 



Of the Chipping Sparrow Dr. Judd writes, " Two hundred 

 and fifty stomachs have been examined, collected from March to 

 November, and throughout the country both in the East and 

 West, principally, however, from New England to Virginia, and 

 from the states of Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and California, the 

 greater part of the western Chipping Sparrows coming from the 

 last named state. More collections were made in the summer 

 and early autumn than at any other season. Of the contents of 

 these stomachs the total animal food, consisting of insects with 

 an occasional spider, amounts to 38 per cent; the vegetable food 

 to 62 per cent. Of the vegetable food, 4 per cent is grain, prin- 

 cipally oats ; 48 per cent grass seed ; and 10 per cent other seeds, 

 such as clover, ragweed, amaranth, wood sorrel, lamb's-quarters. 



