THE SPARROW IN AMERICA. 55 



a thing of the past. Numbers will still be continued to 

 be fed to the young birds while they are nestlings, but 

 these will be mingled with other diet of a vegetal 

 character. 



Dipterous insects, but chiefly in the mature state, 

 arc greedily eaten when procurable. To capture these 

 creatures requires no little skill and address. Still I 

 have witnessed such feats by the sparrows, but there 

 w;is lacking that inimitable precision which character- 

 izes the Muscicapidee, Vireonidm, and to a slight degree, 

 the Sylvieolidm. From the exceedingly limited supply 

 of dipterous food which these birds are able to procure, 

 it is obvious that we cannot look to them to rid man of 

 many of his most inveterate tormentors. The principal 

 insects of this order that are preyed upon are the com- 

 mon house fly (Musca domestical stable fly {Stoiaojcijs 

 calcitrans), white-lined horse-fly [Tabanus lincola), mos- 

 quito (Culex tceniorliynchus). 



In addition to the foregoing, our various species of 

 Aphidce and Coceidce, arc exterminated in countless 

 myriads. Perhaps the good which they accomplish in 

 the destruction of these vegetation-destroyers will com- 

 pensate for the mischief which the}' commit in other 

 directions. This good quality, however, certainly loses 

 much of its value when brought before the light of in- 

 vestigation. 'Tis true that these rapidly multiplying 

 creatures are held somewhat in check under sparrow 

 domination. But then how much better is the condi- 

 tion of affairs now than in the past ? When our smaller 

 native birds were common denizens of our yards and 

 fields, before the introduction of the sparrows, aphides 

 were not more abundant than under the present regime. 

 Any of our numerous insect-eating birds would destroy 



