268 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



ful birds ; but their services in the destruction of field 

 vermin more than makes good that damage in the aggregate. 

 The song birds are all useful to the agriculturist. We 

 cannot say as much for the English sparrow. The best 

 ornithological authorities in this country agree that the 

 young birds while they remain in the nest are fed partly on 

 insects and partly on grain, fruit, and flowers of fruit trees, 

 but that the mature birds subsist entirely on a vegetable 

 diet. 



Dr. B. H. Warren, State ornithologist of Pennsylvania, 

 says : — 



Between thirty and forty species of the sparrow family (Frin- 

 gillidce) occur in Massachusetts, and about twenty are said to 

 breed here. Of this large number the English sparrow is the only 

 species regarded by naturalists as being detrimental to the interests 

 of agriculture. The English or European house sparrow, an 

 abundant resident about buildings, nests iy. bird boxes, holes in 

 trees or branches of trees, in vines and in various places about 

 houses and other buildings. The nest is composed of dried 

 grasses, pieces of string, etc., lined with an abundance of feath- 

 ers. The dull-whitish eggs, from four to seven in number, are 

 thickly spotted and streaked with different shades of brown. In 

 this locality at least two and probably more broods are reared in a 

 season. The English sparrow, as this species is commonly known 

 throughout the United States, is universally despised by farmers, 

 fruit growers and naturalists, because of its pernicious habits. In 

 the spring it feeds largely on the buds of fruit trees, bushes and 

 vines, chief among which may be mentioned the pear, apple, peach, 

 plum, cherry, currant and grape. Different garden products, 

 such as lettuce, beans, peas, cabbage, berries, pears, apples and 

 grapes, are greedily fed upon. The sparrow greatly damages the 

 corn crop, tearing open the husks, devouring the tender part of 

 the ear, and exposing the remainder to the ravages of the insects 

 and the atmospheric changes. It alights on fields of wheat, 

 oats and barley, consuming a large quantity, and, by swaying »to 

 and fro on the tender stalks and flapping its wings, showers the 

 remainder on the ground. In addition to a much- varied vegetable 

 diet, the sparrow has been known to kill and devour the young of 

 other small birds. Our native song and insectivorous birds, viz., 

 the robin, bluebird, wren, chippy, song sparrow, red-eyed vireo 

 and some few others, which were formerly plentiful residents in 



