938 Eeport of State Geologist. 



not suffer perceptibly. For about ten weeks ending about October 

 25 a great part of their food was grapes. The insects thej^ destro}' are 

 comparatively few, and are most often caught to feed the young. I 

 have occasionally seen a Sparrow catch a moth or other flying species, 

 and on one or two occasions have observed them hunting among cab- 

 bage heads, as though they were after cabbage-worms. Indeed, they are 

 known to occasionally eat these. July 21 a mass of larvae of a species 

 of ant was found associated together and so arranged that they looked 

 like one large worm the size of a piece of rope. They were upon a 

 street crossing in Brookville. All moved together in one direction. 

 A few specimens were taken and sent to Mr. L. 0. Howard, U. S. Ento- 

 mologist, Washington, D. C, for identification. Soon after a flock of 

 House Sparrows found this living rope, and ate it all. The mass was 

 about 1^ feet long, f inch wide and | inch deep. 



The following is a summary of the contents of 522 stomachs of these 

 birds, examined hj the United States Department of Agriculture: 

 "Wheat was found in 22 stomachs, oats in 327, com (maize) in 71, 

 fruit seed (mainly mulberries) in 57, grass seed in 102, weed seed in 

 85, undetermined vegetable matter in 219, bread, rice, etc., in 19; nox- 

 ious insects in 47, beneficial insects in 50, insects of no economic im- 

 portance in 31. Doubtless most of the oats found in the stomachs 

 were obtained from horse droppings, and some of the undetermined 

 vegetable matter was from the same source." Insects constituted but 

 a little over 17 per cent., which, when we consider that it was an un- 

 usually favorable year for insects at Washington, D. C, where most 

 of these birds were killed, and, further, that the grounds where they 

 were taken were infested with several noxious forms, of which only 

 two specimens of one kind were found to have been eaten by the 

 sparrows, is not favorable to this bird as an insect destroyer. 



The}^ are very prolific. I have found them mating January 16, 

 1887, and have found young barely able to fly July 30, 1896. They 

 sometimes lay in February and, perhaps, rarely breed as late as Novem- 

 ber. I have found nests with from three to nine eggs. It is supposed 

 they lay from four to six sittings a year, and it is estimated that each 

 pair raised 24 young in a season. The rate of increase is enormous. 

 How shall it be held in check? In most States it is outlawed; some 

 States have offered a bounty for its capture, but the results have not 

 been altogether satisfactory. Poisoning has been tried, generally with 

 unsatisfaetory results. Trapping, too, has been used. It is said Mr. W. 

 T. Hill, of Indianapolis, trapped 40,000 of them in Indianapolis the 

 two years ending October 1, 1887. Outside the immediate neighbor- 

 hood of operations no effect was observed. The beet thing to do is toi 



