The Tree Sparrow 255 



exceptionally beautiful and striking plumage, as the Rose-breasted and Blue 

 Grosbeaks, Goldfinch. Cardinal, Indigo and Painted Buntings, etc. 



This family also includes some of the best of the singing birds, and, with 

 few exceptions, its members may be included among the birds that are 

 economically of the greatest value to the human race. The bills of the Spar- 

 rows, Finches and other members of the family, while widely diversified in 

 form, are always stout and strong and adapted to crushing or opening seed 

 capsules for the fruit within them. Seeds constitute the largest part of the 

 food supply of all the members of this great family. By watching a Canary, 

 a prominent and well-known member of the family, one can see how deftly 

 and easily a seed is cracked and the meat is extracted. The Tree Sparrow 

 is a very common , and should be a well - known winter bird throughout a large 

 section of the United States. It associates freely with the Junco and does not 

 hesitate to visit dooryards and gardens, gleaning from them weed and other 

 seeds, all the while giving voice to contented and happy notes of thanks- 

 giving for food and pleasant companions. Among the experiences of every 

 bird lover, there are incidents that stand out prominently like landmarks and 

 are never effaced from the memory. The name Tree Sparrow always recalls 

 to the writer a beautiful winter picture seen many years smce. There had 

 been almost a blizzard, such a storm as Whittier describes in ''Snow Bound." 



The morning after the storm the sun was shining with that peculiar 

 winter brilliancy when the air seems to sparkle and glisten. Everywhere 

 there was a beautiful, unbroken mantle of snow. In a last year's corn-field, 

 that had been poorly cultivated and was overrun with that most noxious 

 plant known to all farmers as the ragweed {Ambrosia artemisiafolia) , 

 there were hundreds of Tree Sparrows clinging to the tops of the weed 

 stalks, just showing above the carpet of snow. They were feeding on the 

 ripened seeds; a long fast and great hunger had made them very tame ; they 

 made a beautiful and animated scene, a joyous picture of happy bird -life; 

 everywhere were contentment and voices lifted up in thankfulness for 

 nature's bounties. 



What the farmer had neglected to do the previous fall this flock of Tree 

 Sparrows was doing for him. The number of seeds destroyed in that one 

 field on that day alone must have been beyond computation in figures. The 

 owner of the land probably wondered the next season why his field was so 

 clear of ragweeds; he little dreamed of the cleansing process that was carried 

 on that bright winter day by his friends the Tree Sparrows. 



The relation that the Tree Sparrow bears to agriculture is an important 

 question, and one that will naturally interest the farmer more than its song 

 or cheerful habits. While this species undoubtedly destroys many insects in 

 its summer home, as all Sparrows do, yet it is only resident in the United 

 States during the season when insects are not plenty with us, there- 

 fore the good it does consists in its destruction of weed seeds. No greater 



