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



farmer. An examination has been made of 299 stomachs collected 

 during every month in the year except May. They were secured 

 chiefly along the Atlantic seaboard, but a fairly large number were 

 obtained in the central part of the country and California. 



" The food for the year, as a whole, as indicated by these 

 stomachs, consists of animal matter 22 per cent and vegetable 

 matter 78 per cent. The animal matter is distributed as follows: 

 Orthoptera and Lepidoptera, each 2 per cent; Hymenoptera, 3 

 per cent ; Coleoptera, 6 per cent ; miscellaneous insects, largely 

 Hemiptera, 7 per cent ; and spiders, with a few snails and other 

 invertebrates, 2 per cent." 



" When the bird migrates to fertile districts and extends over 

 the whole of the United States in autumn to remain until spring, 

 it becomes a most important and useful bird. The animal food 

 at this time, which is of the usual character, is too small to be 

 important. The vegetable food, which constitutes 91 per cent of 

 the diet, may be conveniently divided into three nearly equal parts ; 

 the first of which is largely timothy, broom sedge, sheathed rush 

 grass, pigeon-grass, crab-grass and other panicums, paspalum, 

 and a small quantity of grain ; the second comprises ragweed and 

 polygonums ; and the third includes the seeds of various plants 

 the majority of which are such weeds as amaranth, lamb's-quar- 

 ters, chickweed, purslane, tick-trefoil, vetch, gromwell, wood sor- 

 rel, sedge, sheep sorrel, wild sunflower, and Russian thistle. The 

 seeds of amaranth and lamb's-quarters are by far the most im- 

 portant in the diet. Few other sparrows eat as many of these 

 seeds as the Junco, which feeds on them chiefly in March, when, 

 doubtless, other and more palatable seeds are too scarce to be 

 easil}^ obtained. 



" The effect of the Junco during its stay on agricultural land 

 is that of an unmixed benefit, because the good done by its ex- 

 tensive consumption of weed seeds is not counterbalanced by any 

 real harm; even the slight tendency toward eating grain is prac- 

 tically harmless, since most of the grain eaten consists of waste 

 kernels." ( Judd, " The Relation of Sparrows to Agriculture.") 



The Song Sparrow {Melospiza melodia melodia) is in the 

 summer the most abundant of our sparrows, and some remain 

 with us throughout the year. " Its food, as indicated by the 

 examination of 401 stomachs from 26 States and British Colum- 



