FEEDING HABITS OF THE CHIPPING SPARROW IO9 



6 157 — Food brought in at north side ; excrement carried away. 



7 :io — Food brought in at north side. 



7 :i6 — Food brought in at north side. The sky is clouded, and the 

 atmosphere is now becoming dark. 



7 :27 — Both parents returned; one came through east side, and the 

 other through the north side. One had a large caterpillar, 

 and the other apparently also had one. Both fed and flew 

 away at once. 



7 :36 — One bird came in at north side; fed and flew away at once. 



7 :49 — Now quite dark. One bird flew in, probably the female, got 

 on the nest a moment and then got off and wandered 

 round the tree a minute. Then at 7 150 it settled down on 

 the nest. The young birds poked their heads up for two 

 or three minutes, but the old bird remained quiet, and the 

 young soon withdrew their heads. This was the end of the 

 day's work for the busy parents. 



The reason that the side of the tree through which the birds entered 

 was recorded was that it was believed that one of the parents always 

 came through the north side, and the other the east side. But the 

 difference in the sexes is so slight that it was impracticable to be cer- 

 tain of the facts of the case. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



During this busy day the parent birds had made almost two 

 hundred visits to the nest, bringing food nearly every time, 

 though some of the trips seemed to be made to furnish grit 

 for the grinding of the food. There was no long interval 

 when they were not at work, the longest period between visits 

 having been twenty-seven minutes. Soft-bodied caterpillars 

 were the most abundant elements of the food, but crickets and 

 crane-flies (Fig. i) were also seen, and doubtless a great variety 

 of insects was taken. The precise determination of the most of 

 the food brought was, of course, impossible, the observations 

 having been undertaken especially to learn the regularity of 

 the feeding habits of the adult birds. That they were busy 

 from daylight to dark with no long intermission at any time is 

 shown by the record, and the observation is submitted as a 

 contribution to our knowledge of a subject in which much 

 guessing has been done on account of the lack of definite 

 information. 



The chipping sparrow is one of the most abundant and 

 familiar of our birds. It seeks its nesting site in the vicinity of 



