CHIPPING SPARROW (Spizella 

 passerina) 



Length, about 5*1 inches. Distinguished by 

 tlie chestnut crown, black line through eye, and 

 black bill. 



Range: l^reeds throughout the United States, 

 south to Nicaragua, and north to southern 

 Canada; winters in the southern United States 

 and southward. 



Habits and economic status : The chipping 

 sparrow is very friendly and domestic, and 

 often builds its nest in gardens and orchards 

 or in the shrubbery close to dwellings. Its 

 gentle and confiding ways endear it to all bird 

 lovers. It is one of the most insectivorous of 

 all the sparrows. Its diet consists of about 42 

 per cent of insects and spiders and 58 per cent 

 of vegetable matter. The animal food consists 

 largely of caterpillars, of which it feeds a 

 great many to its young. Besides these, it eats 

 beetles, including many weevils, of which one 

 stomach contained 30. It also eats ants, wasps, 

 and bugs. Among the latter are plant lice and 

 black olive scales. The vegetable food is prac- 

 tically all weed seed. A nest with 4 young of 

 this species was watched at different hours on 

 4 days. In the 7 hours of observation 119 

 feedings were noted, or an average of 17 feed- 

 ings per hour, or 4^4 feedings per hour to each 

 nestling. This would give for a day of 14 

 hours at least 238 insects eaten by the brood. 



ENGLISH SPARROW (Passer 

 domesticus) 



Length, about 6V4 inches. Its incessant chat- 

 tering, quarrelsome disposition, and abundance 

 and familiarity about human habitations dis- 

 tinguish it from our native sparrows. 



Range : Resident throughout the United 

 States and southern Canada. 



Habits and economic status: Almost univer- 

 sally condemned since its introduction into the 

 United States, the English sparrow has not 

 only held its own, but has ever increased in 

 numbers and extended its range in spite of all 

 opposition. Its habit of driving out or even 

 killing more beneficial species and the defiling 

 of buildings by its droppings and by its own 

 unsightly structures are serious objections to 

 this sparrow. Moreover, in rural districts, it is 

 destructive to grain, fruit, peas, beans, and 

 other vegetables. On the other hand, the bird 

 feeds to some extent on a large number of 

 insect pests, and this fact points to the need of 

 a new investigation of the present economic 

 status of the species, especially as it promises 

 to be of service in holding in check the newly 

 introduced alfalfa weevil, which threatens the 

 alfalfa industry in Utah and neighboring 

 States. In cities most of the food of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow is waste material secured from 

 the streets. 



WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 

 (Zonotrichia leucophrys) 



Length, 7 inches. The only similar sparrow, 

 the white throat, has a yellow spot in front of 

 eye. 



Range: Breeds in Canada, the mountains of 

 New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Mon- 

 tana, and thence to the Pacific coast ; winters 

 in the southern half of the United States and 

 in northern Mexico. 



Habits and economic status: This beautiful 

 sparrow is much more numerous in the western 

 than in the eastern States, where, indeed, it is 

 rather rare. In the East it is shy and retiring, 

 but it is much bolder and more conspicuous 

 in the far West, and there often frequents 

 gardens and parks. Like most of its family, 

 it is a seed eater by preference, and insects 

 comprise very little more than 7 per cent of its 

 diet. Caterpillars are the largest item, with 

 some beetles, a few ants and wasps, and some 

 bugs, among which are black olive scales. The 

 great Inilk of the food, however, consists of 

 weed seeds, which amount to 74 per cent of the 

 whole. In California this bird is accused of 

 eating the buds and blossoms of fruit trees, 

 but buds or blossoms were found in only 30 

 out of 516 stomachs, and probably it is only 

 under exceptional circumstances that it does 

 any damage in this way. Evidently neither the 

 farmer nor the fruit grower has much to fear 

 from the white-crowned sparrow. The little 

 fruit it eats is mostly wild, and the grain eaten 

 is waste or volunteer. 



CROW BLACKBIRD (Quiscalus 



quiscula) 



Length, 12 inches. Shorter by at least 3 

 inches than the other grackles with trough- 

 shaped tails. Black, with purplish, bluish, and 

 bronze reflections. 



Range : Breeds throughout the United States 

 west to Texas, Colorado, and Montana, and in 

 southern Canada; winters in the southern half 

 of the breeding range. 



Habits and economic status: This blackbird 

 is a beautiful species, and is well known from 

 its habit of congregating in city parks and nest- 

 ing there year after year. Like other species 

 which habitually assemble in great flocks, it is 

 capable of inflicting much damage on any crop 

 it attacks, and where it is harmful a judicious 

 reduction of numbers is probably sound policy. 



It shares with the crow and blue jay the evil 

 habit of pillaging the nests of small birds of 

 eggs and young. Nevertheless it does much 

 good by destroying insect pests, especially 

 white grubs, weevils, grasshoppers, and cater- 

 pillars. .\mong the caterpillars are army 

 worms and other cutworms. When l)lackbirds 

 gather in large flocks, as in the Alississippi 

 Valley, they may greatly damage grain, either 

 when first sown or when in the milk. In win- 

 ter they subsist mostly on weed seed and waste 

 grain. 



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