THE SONG-SPARROW. 175 
upon the blossoms of the red maple and other early-bloom- 
ing forest-trees, green ginger-berries, and the seeds of veg- 
etables, in search of which it frequents the kitchen-gardens, 
and associates with the noble fox-sparrows and chattering 
gvoldfinches. As warm weather advances, the song-spar- 
row leaves the gardens, and seeks, in wilder spots, less of 
vegetable and more of animal food —eating strawberries, 
wild cherries, raspberries, ete., now and then as a relish; 
but depending for regular fare upon the young of the in- 
sect world just hatching out. It would be quite impossi- 
ble to enumerate all the kinds eaten; probably everything 
palatable is welcome. I remember one June day watching 
one little fellow industriously picking very minute lice-like 
bugs from the under-side of the leaves of an apple-tree. 
He seemed inordinately fond of them, and swallowed twen- 
ty or thirty a minute, uttering the while a quick metallic 
chirp. Many kinds of caterpillars he lkewise devours, 
among them clothes’ moths and the loathsome tent-cater- 
pillar, that stretches its canopied webs among the twigs of 
our orchard and shade trees, and drops down upon our 
heads in all its ugly nastiness; also ants, earthworms, and 
young beetles. 
When the insects mature, and betake themselves beyond 
his easy reach, small fruits still remain; and, as these grad- 
