30 



their young are nourished almost entirely on insects, their great 

 value to the farmer is unquestioned. In the illustration from 

 Mr. Reed's photographs the parents are seen with their callow 

 brood (Fig. 7). In the lower picture, the female, having brought 

 a caterpillar too large to be fed whole, joins with the male in 

 dividing it. 



The song sparrow is another bird which has done excellent 

 service in the garden. A pair of these birds nested near a ditch 

 at the north side of the garden in 1901, where they confined 

 their attentions principally to the early cabbage patch. Both 

 cabbages and cauliflowers made a rank growth, and by June 

 had so covered the ground that these creeping ground sparrows 

 could readily pass beneath them unobserved. Their habits in 

 this respect are such as to completely baffle the ordinary ob- 

 server. Finally, after much watching, they were seen to eat 

 the cabbage plant louse and some of the cabbage worms. This 

 pair of birds could be found among the cabbages at almost any 

 hour of the day. They sought their food there almost continu- 

 ally, and they made great havoc with the cabbage insects; but, 

 as there were five different caterpillars on the cabbages, and the 

 birds took much of their food when concealed from view or at a 

 distance from the observer, it is hardly possible to say more 

 than that probably all species were eaten. 



All the cabbage insects were so reduced in number that 

 little injury was done to the heads. No insecticides were 

 used upon the cabbages or cauliflowers, though a few worms 

 were killed by hand at first. They were afterward left to the 

 sparrows. The chipping sparrows also took worms from the 

 cabbages. The song sparrows eat most caterpillars if they 

 are found in the immediate vicinity of their nests. With us 

 they do not go far afield when they can find sufficient food 

 near at hand. They seldom went beyond the cabbage patch, 

 flying from that to the thicket about their home. They feed 

 mainly on or near the ground, and for this reason, perhaps, 

 they search out and destroy many cutworms. They were not 

 seen to take any fruit from the garden, although they have been 

 known to eat strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. This 

 was the only pair of these birds nesting about the garden in 

 in 1901. Their young were destroyed, probably by a cat, and 



