THE FINCHES AND SPARROWS. 



139 



THE SONG-SPARROW. 

 (After Biological Survey.) 



where they have not passed the winter. Its nest is placed on 

 the ground or in a low bush, and two or three broods are 

 reared each season. " It seeks its food on the ground, gen- 

 erally among bushes or weeds, and has a peculiar mouse- 

 like way of running- 

 through the grass.'' 

 During the winter it 

 lives mostly on the 

 seeds of weed s, 

 while in summer it 

 is largely insectivo- 

 rous. In spring it 

 feeds upon the seeds 

 of dandelion. When 

 canker-worms are 

 abundant it feeds 

 freely upon them, 

 and at other times 

 takes a great variety of insects, such as ground-beetles, grass- 

 hoppers and their eggs, occasionally a lady-bird beetle and 

 various noxious beetles, moths, dragon-flies, crickets, spiders, 

 bugs, two-winged flies, and myriapods. 



Considering its abundance, comparatively few people are 

 familiar with the song or appearance of the SWAMP-SPARROW. 

 This bird is a recluse, living in the tangled shrubbery of 

 lowland swamps, where he may often be seen by the nature- 

 lover who will patiently penetrate to his retreat. This spe- 

 cies breeds commonly in New England, rearing two or three 

 broods each summer, and spends the winter in the South. 

 Insects appear to form about half its food : among those 

 taken from the stomachs of this species we may mention 

 beetles, moths, bugs (including plant-lice and leaf-hoppers), 

 grasshoppers, caterpillars (among them case-bearers of the 

 genus Coleophora), and a few parasitic Hymenoptera. They 

 also eat snails and the seeds of various grasses, sedges, and 



