BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 311 



Massachusetts consists of insects, mainh^ injurious species, 

 such as are eaten by other Sparrows. It is particularly fond 

 of beetles. It eats more ants than do most Sparrows, many 

 cutworms, a few spiders, and some snails. The vegetable 

 food consists largely of the seeds of pigeon grass, panic 

 grass, wild rice, and marsh grasses. 



Vesper Sparrow. Grass Finch. Bay-winged Bunting. 



Pocccdcs gramineus gramineus. 



Length. — About six inches. 



Adult. — Above, grayish-brown, finely streaked witli dusky; crown finely 

 streaked, but with no dividing line ; cheeks bufTy, with a dark patch ; 

 a narrow white eye ring ; below, whitish (bulfy where streaked) , narrowly 

 streaked with brown or black on breast and sides ; a bay patch near the 

 bend of the wing; tail dark, moderately long; outer tail feathers white. 



Ne.st. — On ground. 



Egg^. — Dull white or buffy, with many spots, usually overlaid by large dark 

 marks and scrawls. 



Season. — April to October. 



The Vesper Si)arrow is, next to the Song Sparrow, the 

 most abundant ground Sparrow in Massachusetts. It is gen- 



Fig. 139. — Vesper Sparrow, one-half natural size. 



erally distributed wherever there are open fields and upland 

 pastures, but it is not a bird of the meadows, and is not as 

 common in some parts of southeastern Massachusetts as else- 



