366 White-throated Sparrow 



note, consisting- of a single twit, repeated in smart succession by the 

 whole group, and continuing until the first hooting of some owl frightens 

 them into silence. Yet, often during fine nights I have heard the little 

 creatures emit here and there a twit, as if to assure each other that all's 

 well." 



The food-supply of some birds consists entirely of one special kind 

 of article. For example, we can hardly imagine a Cormorant, Pelican, 

 Osprey or Kingfisher engaged in consuming any food other than fish. 

 Swallows and Swifts eat insects that they capture while in full flight. 

 To secure such a diet it is therefore necessary , for them to travel long 

 distances twice a year to reach lands where the insect- 

 life they desire may be obtained. With Sparrows, 

 however, we find that quite a different condition 

 exists. They are not fitted for capturing fish, as does the Pelican or the 

 Osprey, but they do eat almost any kind of food that is available. 



In the fall of the year White-throated Sparrows consume many 

 berries, which they 1 pick off the vines and berry-producing trees. They 

 collect also the seeds of those berries that, dried or decayed, fall to the 

 ground. Not long ago I watched for a time .a flock of fourteen of these 

 Sparrows feeding on the red berries of a little tree growing in a park. 

 I have not been able to learn the name of the tree, but the berries it 

 produces are evidently very choice from the stand- 

 point of the birds. Some of the Sparrows were 

 busily employed in picking off and eating the fruit. 

 Others, perhaps early comers, were already satisfied, and in a 

 bunchy, ruffled-up kind of attitude, sat very still and appeared to take 

 no note of the sound of the banquet going on all about them. It was 

 only when a vagrant cat appeared on the hillside near by that these 

 drowsy fellows exhibited signs of returning animation. 



In collecting weed-seeds the birds hop about among the vines or tall 

 weeds and carefully search through the debris on the ground. When the 

 earth is strewn with fallen leaves, and these are dry, the rattling, rustling 

 noise of a flock of feeding Whitethroats may lead one to think a Grouse 

 family is advancing along the ground. Whitethroats fly up and alight 

 on the sides of ragweeds, and, hanging there, fluttering, they pick at the 

 seeds that have not yet dropped. I have seen slender, brittle weed-stalks 

 break off in such circumstances and down would 



C me weed " stalk > birdie and all. It may readily 

 be seen that these birds are valuable to the 

 farmer who spends most of his summer trying with hoe and plow to 

 keep the weeds from over-running his crops. For this reason laws for 

 its protection have been passed in all the States where this Sparrow is 

 found. 



Among migratory birds the exclusive insect-eaters are, as a rule, 

 among the first to leave their northern homes in autumn, while those 

 that are more omnivorous in their feeding usually linger until the winter 



