BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 305 



State in one year. It is a persistent destroyer of the grubs 

 that mine the leaves of beets. I watched one bird secure 

 eleven of these grubs in a few minutes. It feeds on the eggs 

 of the parsley butterfly {Pa}nUo polyxenes) , and also takes 

 young larvie of this species and other insects from the leaves 

 of celerj^, lettuce, and other small truck. I have no doubt 

 that an investigation of the food of this bird in the garden 

 would show it to be of great value to the market gardener. 

 It likes to feed on cultivated ground, in the shade of the 

 green leaves of vegetables. It cree})s about noiselessly up 

 and down the rows, an unseen and unnoticed influence for 

 good. Injurious beetles, bugs, leaf hoppers, grasshoppers, 

 and ants are taken freely. 



Its vegetal)le food is of less importance than its animal food. 

 It eats wild cherries, and Professor Beal says that he has 

 seen it take a few cultivated cherries. Only four per cent, 

 of the seeds eaten are grain, principally oats. Chick weed 

 seed is commonly eaten, and some seeds of clover, ragweed, 

 amaranth, wood sorrel, lamb's quarters, purslane, knotweed, 

 and black bindweed ; forty-eight per cent, of the seed eaten 

 is grass seed, of which twenty-six per cent, is crab grass 

 and pigeon grass, — two common weeds. The seeds of crab 

 grass form the most important part of the vegetable diet 

 whenever they can be obtained, for then the birds fill them- 

 selves with those only. Many Sparrows eat seeds whenever 

 they are obtainable, even in summer, when insects are plenti- 

 ful. The seeds of the dandelion are among the earliest that 

 the Chipping Sparrow finds in summer. It frequently seeks 

 the seeds of this plant on lawns. It takes them one by one 

 from the opening heads, and spends so much time in this 

 manner that it must consume a great deal of this seed. In 

 August it sometimes visits oat stubble, where it picks up 

 fallen grain. 



Dr. Judd found that, on the one side, only one per cent, 

 of the food eaten was composed of useful insects, while more 

 than twenty-five per cent, consisted of insect pests; and, on 

 the other side, grain composed four per cent, and weed seeds 

 forty per cent, of the food. These figures clearly show the 

 good service rendered to man by the Chipping Sparrow. 



