42 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



fondness for horse-hairs as material for its nest. 

 As a matter of fact, this is not good nesting- 

 material, for. the hairs selected are from the 

 mane and tail of the horse, and besides beinsf 

 stiff, and therefore hard to weave into the only 



Photo by H. T. Middictnu 



CHIPPING SPARROW 

 One of the tamest of our door-yard birds 



kind of nest the bird knows how to build, are 

 often so long that two or three ends are likely 

 to be left protruding for several inches. These 

 ends are dangerous snares, in which both old 

 and young birds become entangled, often with 

 tragic results. The persistence of the bird in 

 using this dangerous building material is but 

 another illustration of the blind way in which 

 instinct sometimes works. 



The song of this Sparrow is a rapid and rather 

 monotonous reiteration of the same note. It is 

 frequently described as a " trill," but this is in- 

 accurate, as a trill is a rapid repetition of two 

 distinct tones, whereas there is but one tone in 

 Chippy's song. Mr. Burroughs records, as a 

 marked exception, a song of one of these Spar- 

 rows in which the tones were in two groups, one 

 at a little lower pitch than the other. The tone 

 is very high, — an octave or so above the highest 

 C of a piano. The bird is often in a conspicuous 

 place — the top of a tree or bush — as he pre- 

 sents this simple little offering: or he mav even 

 execute part of it while on the wing, though this 

 seems to be very unusual. 



Inexperienced or careless observers frequently 

 confuse this Sparrow with the Field Sparrow : 

 but this is needless if one will remember that the 

 Chipping Sparrow has a black bill, and a grayish 

 line over the eye and a brown stripe through it, 

 distinguishing marks which the Field Sparrow 

 lacks. 



The Chipping Sparrow is one of the most 

 insectivorous of all the Sparrows. Its diet con- 

 sists 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 yovmg. Be- 

 sides these, it eats beetles, including many wee- 

 vils. It also eats ants, wasps, and bugs. Among 

 the latter are plant lice and black-olive scales. 

 The vegetable food is practically all weed seed. 

 A nest with four young of this species was 

 watched at different hours on four days. In the 

 seven hours of observation 119 feedings were 

 noted, or an average of seventeen feedings per 

 liiiur. or four and one-quarter feedings per hour 

 to each nestling. This would give for a day of 

 fourteen hours at least 238 insects eaten by the 

 brood. Chipping Sparrows have been noted at 

 the end of May far out in a patch of corn 

 stubble feeding on yellow sorrel that was going 

 to seed. A score of Chipping .Sparrows have 

 been seen amid crab grass, which was spreading 

 so rapidly through a market garden in a pear 

 orchard that it was likely to impair the product. 

 They hopped up to the fruiting stalks, which 

 were then in the milk, and beginning at the tip 

 of one of tlie several spil<es that radiated from 



H. K. Job Omrtcsy (.1 Outing Pub. Co. 



CHIPPING SPARROW AT HOME 

 On Mr. Job's porch, in the woodbine 



a common center like the spokes of a wheel and, 

 gradually moving their beaks along to the base, 

 the}' chewed oft" the seeds of spike after spike in 

 regular succession. Usually thev did not remove 

 their beaks until they reached the base, thotigh 



