GRASSHOPPER SPARROW 735 



and rufous and also with much less, sometimes almost no, black on 

 the back. The lower parts are lighter and not so dull. 



The Florida race, A. s. Jloridanus, is much darker above than 

 ^4. s. pratensis, paler and less buffy below. Feathers of the upper 

 parts are mainly black, edged with grayish, with little or no brown. 

 The underparts are less heavily washed with pinkish buff than A. s. 

 pratensis. 



Food. — Insects form the staple food of the grasshopper sparrow; 

 and the most prominent among these is the grasshopper. Judd 

 (1901) found that grasshoppers (genera Xiphidium, Scvdderia, 

 Hippiscus, and Melanopus) formed 23 percent of the bird's food 

 during eight months of the year, 60 percent of its food in June and 

 37 percent of its diet from ]May to August. Thus the name of the 

 bird is appropriate from the standpoint of its diet as well as its song. 



Judd examined 170 stomachs of this sparrow collected between 

 February and October from both the east and west. Food consisted 

 of 63 percent animal matter and 37 percent vegetable matter. Insects 

 comprised 57 percent of its total food, spiders, myriapods, snails, 

 and earthworms, 6 percent; harmful beetles made up 8 percent and 

 caterpillars 14 percent. Beetles were of three famiUes: click beetles 

 (Elateridae) , weevils (Sitones and related genera), and smaller leaf 

 beetles (Systens spp). Judd writes: "Caterpillars are eaten more 

 freely in May than at any other time, and constitute 33 percent of 

 the food of that month. More than half of the caterpillars destroyed 

 are cutworms * * *. In one stomach from Bourbon County, Ky., 

 were six cutworms {Nephelod^s violans), each an inch long. The 

 army worm seems to be also a favorite article of diet." Eleven 

 percent of the total food consists of ants, dung beetles (Atoeniys and 

 Apodius), and 1 percent bugs, including leaf hoppers (Jassidae), 

 leaf bugs (Capsidae), assassin bugs (Eeduviidae), and smaller soldier 

 bugs (Hymenarcys and Trichopepla) . 



Vegetable food consists of grain, chiefly waste, 2 percent; wood 

 sorrel (Oxalis) 2 percent; ragweed (Ambrosia) 5 percent; pigeon grass 

 (Setaria), panic grass (Panicum), and others 17 percent; smartweed 

 {Polygonum), purslane (Portulata), ribgrass (Plantago), and sedges 

 (Cyperacease) 11 percent. 



Howell (1932) writes of the Florida race: "Examination of the 

 stomachs of 10 specimens taken on the Kissimmee Prairie showed 

 the bird's food to consist of animal matter (insects and spiders), 

 69 percent, and vegetable matter, 31 percent. The insects taken in 

 greatest quantity were grasshoppers and crickets, beetles, weevils, 

 and moths and their larvae, with a few flies and bugs. Seeds of 

 sedges composed most of the vegetable matter, with some grass seed 

 and seeds of star grass (Hypoxis)." 



646-737— 6S—pt. 2 10 



