PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) 



Lenj;th, alxmt 8 inclics. 



Range: I^recds throughout the United States 

 and southern Canada, south to central Mexico; 

 winters in South America. 



Habits and economic status : This is tlic 

 largest, as it is one of the most beautiful, of 

 the swallow tribe. It formerly built its nests 

 in cavities of trees, as it still does in wild dis- 

 tricts, but learning that man was a friend it 

 soon adopted domestic habits. Its presence 

 about the farm can often be secured by erect- 

 ing houses suitable for nesting sites and pro- 

 tecting them from usurpation by the English 

 sparrow, and every effort sliould be made to 

 increase the number of colonies of this very 

 useful bird. The boxes should be at a reason- 

 able height, say 15 feet from the ground, and 

 made inaccessible to cats. A colony of these 

 birds on a farm makes great inroads upon the 

 insect population, as the birds not only them- 

 selves feed upon insects, but rear their young 

 upon the same diet. Fifty years ago in New 

 England it was not uncommon to see colonies 

 of 50 pairs of martins ; but most of them have 

 now vanished for no apparent reason except 

 that the martin houses have decayed and have 

 not been renewed. More than three-fourths of 

 this bird's food consists of wasps, bugs, and 

 beetles, their importance being in the order 

 given. The beetles include several species of 

 harmful weevils, as the clover-leaf weevils and 

 the nut weevils. Besides these are many crane 

 flies, moths, May flies, and dragonflies. 



BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK 



(Zamelodia melanocephala) 



Length, about 8% inclies. 



Range : Breeds from the Pacific coast to Ne- 

 liraska and the Dakotas, and from southern 

 Canada to southern Mexico ; winters in Mexico. 



Habits and economic status : The black- 

 headed grosbeak takes the place in the West 

 of the rosebreast in the East, and, like it, is a 

 fine songster. Like it, also, the blackhead 

 readily resorts to orchards and gardens and is 

 common in agricultural districts. Tiie bird has 

 a very powerful bill and easily crushes or cuts 

 into the firmest fruit. It feeds upon cherries, 

 apricots, and other fruits, and also does some 

 damage to green peas and l)eans ; but it is so 

 active a foe of certain horticultural pests that 

 we can afford to overlook its faults. Several 

 kinds of scale insects are freely eaten, and one, 

 the black olive scale, constitutes a fifth of the 

 total food. In May many cankerworms and 

 codling moths are consumed, and almost a sixth 

 of the bird's seasonal food consists of flower 

 beetles, which do incalculable damage to culti- 

 vated flowers and to ripe fruit. For each 

 quart of fruit consumed by the black-headed 

 grosbeak it destroys in actual bulk more than 

 i>^ quarts of black olive scales and one quart 

 of flower beetles besides a generous quantity 

 of codling-moth pupae and cankerworms. It is 

 obvious that such work as this pays many 

 times over for the fruit destroyed. 



ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 



(Zamelodia ludoviciana) 



Length, 8 inches. 



Range : Breeds from Kansas, Ohio, Georgia 

 (mountains), and New Jersey, north to south- 

 ern Canada; winters from Mexico to South 

 America. 



Habits and economic status: This beautiful 

 grosbeak is noted for its clear, melodious 

 notes, which are poured forth in generous 

 measure. The rosebreast sings even at mid- 

 day during summer, when the intense heat has 

 silenced almost every other songster. Its beau- 

 tiful plumage and sweet song are not its sole 

 claim on our favor, for few birds are more 

 beneficial to agriculture. The rosebreast eats 

 some green peas and does some damage to 

 fruit. But this mischief is much more than 

 balanced by the destruction of insect pests. 

 The bird is so fond of the Colorado potato 

 beetle that it has earned the name of "potato- 

 bug bird." and no less than a tenth of the total 

 food of the rosebreasts examined consists of 

 potato beetles — evidence that the bird is one 

 of the most important enemies of the pest. It 

 vigorously attacks cucumber beetles and many 

 of the scale insects. It proved an active enemy 

 of the Rocky Mountain locust during that in- 

 sect's ruinous invasions, and among the other 

 pests it consumes are the spring and fall can- 

 kerworms, orchard and forest tent caterpillars, 

 tussock, gipsy, and brown-tail moths, plum 

 curculio, army worm, and chinch bug. In fact, 

 not one of our birds has a better record. 



SONG SPARROW (Melospiza melodia) 



Length, about 6^ inches. The heavily spot- 

 ted breast with heavy central blotch is charac- 

 teristic. 



Range: Breeds in the United States (except 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf States), southern 

 Canada, southern Alaska, and Mexico; winters 

 in Alaska and most of the United States south- 

 ward. 



Habits and economic status : Like the famil- 

 iar little "chippy," the song sparrow is one of 

 our most domestic species, and builds its nest 

 in hedges or in garden shrubbery close to 

 houses, whenever it is reasonably safe from the 

 house cat, which, however, takes heavy toll of 

 the nestlings. It is a true harbinger of spring, 

 and its delightful little song is trilled forth from 

 the top of some green shrub in early March 

 and April, before most of our other songsters 

 have thought of leaving the sunny South. Song 

 sparrows vary much in habits, as well as in 

 size and coloration. Some forms live along 

 streams bordered b)' deserts, others in swamps 

 among bulrushes and tules, others in timbered 

 regions, others on rocky barren hillsides, and 

 still others in rich, fertile valleys. With such 

 a variety of habitat, the food of the species 

 naturally varies considerably. About three- 

 fourths of its diet consists of the seeds of 

 noxious weeds and one-fourth of insects. Of 

 these, beetles, especially weevils, constitute the 

 major portion. Ants, wasps, bugs (including 

 the black olive scale), and caterpillars are also 

 eaten. Grasshoppers are taken by the eastern 

 birds, but not by the western ones. 



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