HARRIS' SPARROW 1261 



sunflower; 25 percent of the food is the seeds of wild fruits and of 

 various miscellaneous plants; 10 percent is grain, chiefly waste corn, 

 but also including wheat and oats; and 9 percent is grass seed, mainly 

 that of blue-grass, beard-grass, foxtail-grass, and Johnson-grass. The 

 8 percent of animal matter consists of insects, spiders, and snails, 

 with a marked preference for leaf-hoppers among the insects consti- 

 tuting 2 percent of the total food. Additional animal foods quoted 

 from various sources by Swenk and Stevens (1929) include grass- 

 hoppers, beetles, insect larvae, red ants, black carpenter ants, wire- 

 worms, and moths. 



Mrs. Nice (1929a) observes that in Oklahoma they feed on poison 

 ivy berries and elm blossoms as well as weed seeds. We also noted 

 this at Stillwater, and found that when the Chinese elm was in bud 

 and bloom in late February, the birds spent considerable time in 

 these trees. In Nebraska they are reported to take corn from the 

 fallen ears in the fall. 



At feeding stations they may be attracted by almost any small 

 grain — canary and sunflower seed, hemp, millet, grain sorghum, chick- 

 scratch, cracked corn, also occasional suet and crumbs. They have 

 shown no interest whatsoever in wheat. A stray bird that wintered 

 at Berkeley, Calif. (Pray, 1950) was found to nibble on suet, finely 

 chopped meat, weed seed, breakfast cereal, both plain and baked 

 with kitchen fat, but not sunflower seed. By far the greatest amount 

 of feeding was done in the tops of the live oaks, where animal food 

 appeared to be taken. Grass and pyracantha berries were also eaten 

 occasionally. 



In the summer a higher percentage of their food is animal matter, 

 though they are still largely vegetarian. From Semple and Sutton 

 (1932) comes the only information: 



The Harris's Sparrow is primarily a ground feeder. It kicks and scratches 

 energetically among the fallen leaves and dry weedstalks, and works its way 

 through the grass and moss searching carefully for seeds and insects as it goes. 

 We rarely saw the birds feeding for a very long period anywhere above the ground. 

 They were sometimes seen in tamarack trees, however, where they appeared to 

 be finding some sort of insect, or perhaps insect eggs, in the clusters of leaves. 



We preserved the stomachs of several of the specimens collected, and six of 

 these have been examined by the Bureau of the Biological Survey of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture. According to the report given to us by Mr. Clarence 

 Cottam of his identification of material found, the birds consume considerably 

 more vegetable matter (about 66%) than animal matter. Among the vegetable 

 matter found were seeds of various grasses, sedges and bulrushes; seeds of fruit- 

 pulp of the curlew-berry, cranberry or an allied form, and the blueberry; seeds 

 of birch, pigweed, and lamb's quarters; and a considerable quantity of oats 

 which doubtless had been found by the birds along the railway tracks. 



Among the animal matter found were remains of numerous insects, both in 

 adult and larval stages — ground-beetles, leaf-eating beetles, wood-borers, click- 

 beetles, leaf-miners, stink-bugs, small moths, horse-flies, ants, ichneumon-flies, 



