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



" Taking the food habits of the Song- Sparrow as a whole, 

 it will be readily seen that this bird does much more good than 

 harm and is worthy of protection and encouragement. Only 2 

 per cent of the food consists of useful insects, while 18 per cent 

 is composed of injurious insects; and grain, largely waste, 

 amounts to only 4 per cent, while the seeds of various species 

 of weeds constitute 50 per cent." ( Judd, " The Relation of Spar- 

 rows to Agriculture.") 



The food of the Lincoln's and Swamp Sparrov^rs {Melospisa 

 lincolni lincolni and georgiana) resembles that of the Song 

 Sparrow, as does that of the White-crowned {Zonotrichia 

 lencophrys leucophrys) that of the White-throated Sparrow. 



The food of the Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca iliaca), a 

 common migrant, '' as indicated by the examination of 127 

 stomachs, collected principally in the eastern states, and during 

 every month excepting June, July, and August, consists of animal 

 matter 14 per cent, and vegetable matter 86 per cent. The animal 

 food is of little interest excepting in the month of April, when 

 the bird begins eating largely of millepeds of the Julus group — 

 20 per cent of the food for the month consisting of these inverte- 

 brates, — and at the same time develops such a taste for ground 

 beetles as to raise this item of its month's diet to 10 per cent. 

 The quantity of these useful insects destroyed during the summer, 

 when the bird is in its home in the far north, is probably much 

 less. 



" The vegetable food differs from that of most other sparrows, 

 in that it contains less grass seed (only i per cent), less grain, 

 and more fruit, ragweed, and polygonum. Half of the food con- 

 sists of ragweed and polygonum, and more than a quarter of fruit. 

 In its dependence on fruit the Fox Sparrow resembles the White- 

 throated Sparrow. It does no direct damage to cultivated fruit, 

 though it occasionally eats the buds of peach trees and pear trees. 

 Bradford Torrey has observed it feeding on the fruit of burning 

 bush (Euonymus americana). C. K. Averill, Bridgeport, Conn., 

 reports that he has found it eating the berries of the red cedar 

 (Juniperus virginiana), and James H. Gaut, of the Biological 

 Survey, says that he has seen it feeding on pokeberries in Novem- 

 ber in Washington. 



