56 BULLETIN 107, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



which amounted to 8.75 per cent of the stomach contents, and an 

 average of 2 adult weevils and 2.1 larvae for each bird was recorded 

 from this series. One bird had eaten 5 adults and 43 larvae, and 

 another 2 adults and 26 larvae. A bird collected in 1912 had eaten 

 25 breeding adults. 



The remainder of the animal food (1.05 per cent) was divided in 

 small quantities among insects of several orders. The vegetable 

 portion, as usual, was conspicuous by the high percentage of grain 

 (87.19) while the remainder (3 per cent) was weed seeds. 



June. — The highest percentages of weevils eaten by the parent 

 birds were in June. The 20 birds examined had destroyed 26 adults 

 and 229 larvae, an average of 1.3 adults and 11.45 larvae apiece, 

 amounting to 29.55 per cent of the contents. Only 4 of the 20 had 

 failed to eat at least one weevil. One had eaten 49 larvae and 1 adult, 

 comprising 90 per cent of the contents ; another had taken 41 larvae, 

 while the 27 larvae and 2 adults eaten by a third amounted to 99 per 

 cent of its food. Most of these birds had nestings to feed, and the 

 contents of their bills is recorded under the consideration of the 

 food of nestlings. 



The greater portion of the remaining animal food was composed 

 of weevils other than Phytonomus. Of the vegetable portion, 68.4 

 per cent, a little over 3 per cent was weed seeds, while the remainder 

 was grain, mostly wheat. 



July. — In July only three adult sparrows were examined — far too 

 small a number from which to make reliable deductions. However, 

 these showed that weevils were still being eaten, as they were present 

 in all three stomachs, averaging 18 per cent of the bulk, which, save 

 a single clover-root weevil (Sitones), was the entire animal food. 

 This latter insect, known to do damage to alfalfa as well as clover, 

 was found quite frequently but in small quantities in the stomachs of 

 both adult and young sparrows. 



SUMMARY. 



Considering the various phases of the economic relation of the 

 English sparrow to the alfalfa weevil, it may safely be asserted that 

 this bird is a most effective enemy of the pest. This is particularly true 

 of nestling birds in May and June. In view, however, of the ability 

 of this bird to do serious damage to standing grain, and to take 

 heavy toll from the farmers' chicken feed, legal protection for the 

 species can not be advocated. While there doubtless are altogether 

 too many of these birds about some farms, a reduction in their 

 numbers may be much more satisfactorily effected by the individual 

 farmer 1 than by the aid of a bounty law, such as has been in force 



1 Full directions for trapping and poisoning English sparrows, as well as directions for 

 their use as food, may be found in Farmers' Bulletin 493, U. S. Dept. of Agr., The 

 English Sparrow as a Pest, by Ned Dearborn. 



