17 



borers, leaf and fruit eaters. His re- 

 cord with us shows about 80 per cent. 

 insect food. 



From the blackbird and starling group 

 we pass to one of the most extensive 

 and interesting families of birds bene- 

 ficial to agriculture. The finches are 

 represented in Manitoba by some forty 

 species, and of these about one-half are 

 sparrows. When you ask what is the 

 common gray bird, I answer that it may 

 be any one of about thirty species of 

 finches which have a grayish plumage at 

 some time of their lives. 



The group cannot be considered so 

 generally insectivorous as some other 

 gioups. as it contains some species 

 which do not eat insects, because these 

 insects have a decid- 

 e d disinclination t o 

 parade themselves 

 when the ground is 

 covered with snow, 

 and this is the only 

 season some of these 

 species are with us. 

 However, the mere 

 destruction of insect 

 life is not the only 

 class of benefit reap- 

 ed by the agriculturist 

 through the efforts of 

 question of weed de- 

 struction is a very important problem 

 to-day. and these winter-visiting finches, 

 including the evening and pine gros- 

 beaks, redpolls and snowbirds, do much 

 toward the solution of the problem, as 

 their food while with us consists almost 

 entirely of seeds of these weeds remain- 

 ing above the snow. 



While these winter visitors constitute 

 in themselves an extensive armv in the 

 demolition of these agricultural enemies, 

 the sparrows continue the good work 

 through spring, summer and fall, sup- 

 plementing it with an extensive insec- 

 tivorous diet, as the young of most 



Redpoll. 

 (Acanthus linarla.) 



our birds. The 



Junco. 

 (Junco hymelis.) 



species are raised entirely upon this 

 class of food. 



The members of this family, because 

 of their seed-eating propensities, are 

 easily kept in the- aviary, where their 

 preferences may be noted without diffi- 

 culty. I have during 

 the past four consec- 

 utive seasons kept an 

 average of one hun- 

 dred of these finches, 

 representing some 18 

 or 20 species, and es- 

 timated that they de- 

 stroyed about two 

 bushels of noxious 

 weed seed every 

 month, eating most 

 of it while fresh and dry, digging up 

 much of the soft sprouting seeds and 

 cutting off daily the tender shoots and 

 rootlets of whatever escaped long enough 

 to grow. So that on the removal of the 

 aviary inside for the winter nothing but 

 the broken wheat kernels remained. As 

 a general rule they do not touch the 

 wheat, and while a few will eat oats oc- 

 casionally the preference is for small 

 weed seed, and the varieties preferred 

 were mainly wild buckwheat, mustard, 

 pigweed and kindred varieties. 



These records substantiated in the field 

 therefore, constitute a strong case in fa- 

 vor of the finches. 

 The swallows 

 belong to a group 

 entirely insectivor- 

 ous.all the food be- 

 ing taken on the 

 wing, so that if in- 

 sectivorous feeding 

 constitutes an ag- 

 riculturally benefi- 

 cial agent there 

 Tnwhee. can be no question 



(Piplo erythropthalmus.) arise regarding the 

 swallows. 

 The record differs with the waxwing 



A Group of Sparrows. 



Fox Sparrow. Song Sparrow. Harris' Sparrow. White-crowned White throated 



(Passerella iliaca.) (Melospiza (Zonotrichia Sparrow. Sparrow, 



fasciata.) querula.) (Zonotrichia (Zonotrichia 



leucophrys.) albicollis.) 



