The Food of Nestling Birds. 21 



Sparrow.— 42 examples. 



21 lai-v,T of the "Winter ^fotIl,• ?• Fmall T^epidopterous larvae: 

 19 winff ea-^cs of beetles; 7 wins; cases of ]aclyl)ii(l hectle; .^3 

 winffs of small Dipterous fly; 4 spiders; bread, meat, rice grains 

 and vegetable matter present in 39 cases. 

 TiiRisir.— 20 examples: — 



1 larva of Noctiiid moth; 3 wirewoi-ms ; remains of earth- 

 worms and slugs in all cases; 4 spiders; vegetablci matter and 

 soil in all cases. 

 Br-ACKRiRD. — 23 examples- 

 Remains of 17 earth-worms and 9 slu'^s; 3 svireworms; frag- 

 ment.'^ of wing cases of beet'es; large amount of vegetable matter 

 present in all cases; bread and grain present in 7 cases. 



As has been pointed out by Dr. Jurld, practically 

 all birds, excepting Doves and Pigeons, feed their young up- 

 on an anima' diet, whatever may be the c"'iaracter of the food 

 of the adult. Only continued observation will ultimately place 

 us in possession of the nature and amount of food eaten by 

 nestlings, and such information must ultimately prove of great 

 value to all concerned with the raising of crops, whether fruit, 

 general farm, or horticultural. 



In conclusion, " it should be remembered that the nest- 

 ling season is also that when the destruction of injurious in- 

 sects is most needed, that is, at the period of greatest agri- 

 cultural activity and before the parasitic insects can be de- 

 pended on to reduce the pests." A knowledge, therefore, 

 of the nature of the food, the amount consumed, and the 

 relation this bears, from an economic standpoint, to the harm 

 done by some species when adult, is no longer a question, 

 of interesting curiosity on the part of the bird-lover, but one 

 that has a definite bearing on the success or failure of the 

 produce of the land. 



[We would point out, that the foregoing is not out of place, 

 in our pages, for a careful i^aading of the above should 

 prove very helpful to the aviculturist, when having broods of young, 

 of any of the genera referred to, in his aviary and prove a useful 

 guide as to what to supply, etc. 



We would also point out, that Doves and Pigeons must not 

 be excluded from the list of those species which supply an animal 

 or partially animal diet to their fledgelings. On many occasions the 

 writer has seen Diamond and other Doves, break up and swallofw 

 worms, then go and feed their progeny. This applies eq^ually to 

 domestic pigeons, we will only cite one case from the writer's per- 

 sonal observation— the particular pigeons were let out early in the 



