SPARROWS 393 



color and markings, ranging from white to olive brown and 

 purplish gray, speckled, spotted, dashed and blotched with 

 olive, dark brown, slate, purplish gray and black. Some eggs 

 are boldly blotched, others finely speckled and peppered, being 

 exceedingly variable. 



The male sometimes helps to incubate but the female gener- 

 ally does most of this work while her mate is noisily squawking 

 about, telling other birds to keep away and going as far as 

 possible in his efforts to get into a fight with any of his own 

 kind or of the native species which may venture near. 



Incubation requires fourteen days in the early part of the 

 season, and only twelve days in summer. The young leave the 

 nest in thirteen to sixteen days according to weather and season. 

 The number of broods reared in Maine in a season varies but 

 is always at least two and in some instances certainly as many 

 as five, making the offspring of a pair of these birds from at 

 least ten to more often thirty or thirty-five birds in a season. 

 Nearly every egg hatches and practically every young bird 

 reaches maturity as the nests are placed in places not accessible 

 to any save human enemies. 



Now let us see what is the food eaten by these birds. Their 

 chief preference is for fragmental, undigested grain found in 

 horse droppings, and they may be seen feeding on this in the 

 city streets both summer and winter. Bread crumbs, and the 

 odds and ends of food thrown or swept into the streets and 

 back yards are also eaten. Carloads of wheat, barley and 

 other small grains are visited in the freight yards and any 

 spilled grain is likewise devoured, whole corn, on account of 

 its large size, being practically the only grain they do not eat. 



In the summer they eat many of the moths which are found 

 dead under the electric lights and will likewise take live moths 

 under similar conditions. It is very rarely if at all that they 

 will eat the caterpillars of canker worms, tent worms or other 

 injurious insects, for I have seen such caterpillars crawling 

 unharmed and even spinning their cocoons on the Sparrows' 



