PURPLE MARTIN (Progne subis) 
Length, about 8 inches. 
Range: Breeds throughout the United States 
and southern Canada, south to central Mexico; 
winters in South America. 
Habits and economic status: This is the 
largest, as it is one of the most beautiful, of 
the swallow tribe. It formerly built its nests 
in cavities of trees, as it still does in wild dis- 
tricts, but learning that man was a friend it 
soon adopted domestic habits. Its presence 
about the farm can often be secured by erect- 
ing houses suitable for nesting sites and pro- 
tecting them from usurpation by the English 
sparrow, and every effort should be made to 
increase the number of colonies of this very 
useful bird. The boxes should be at a reason- 
able height, say 15 feet from the ground, and 
made inaccessible to cats. A colony of these 
birds on a farm makes great inroads upon the 
insect population, as the birds not only them- 
selves feed upon insects, but rear their young 
upon the same diet, Fifty years ago in New 
England it was not uncommon to see colonies 
of 50 pairs of martins; but most of them have 
now vanished for no apparent reason except 
that the martin houses have decayed and have 
not been renewed. More than three-fourths of 
this bird’s food consists of wasps, bugs, and 
beetles, their importance being in the order 
given. The beetles include several species of 
harmful weevils, as the clover-leaf weevils and 
the nut weevils. Besides these are many crane 
flies, moths, May flies, and dragonflies. 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK 
(Zamelodia ludoviciana) 
Length, 8 inches. 
Range: Breeds from Kansas, Ohio, Georgia 
(mountains), and New Jersey, north to south- 
ern Canada; winters from Mexico to South 
America. 
Habits and economic status: This beautiful 
grosbeak is noted for its clear, melodious 
notes, which are poured forth in generous 
measure. ‘The rosebreast sings even at mid- 
day during summer, when the intense heat has 
silenced almost every other songster. Its beau- 
tiful plumage and sweet song are not its sole 
claim on our favor, for few birds are more 
beneficial to agriculture. The rosebreast eats 
some green peas and does some damage to 
fruit. But this mischief is much more than 
balanced by the destruction of insect pests. 
The bird is so fond of the Colorado potato 
beetle that it has earned the name of “potato- 
bug bird,” and no less than a tenth of the total 
food of the rosebreasts examined consists of 
potato beetles—evidence that the bird is one 
of the most important enemies of the pest. It 
vigorously attacks cucumber beetles and many 
of the scale insects. It proved an active enemy 
of the Rocky Mountain locust during that in- 
sect’s ruinous invasions, and among the other 
pests it consumes are the spring and fall can- 
kerworms, orchard and forest tent caterpillars, 
tussock, gipsy, and brown-tail moths, plum 
curculio, army worm, and chinch bug. In fact, 
not one of our birds has a better record. 
14 
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK 
(Zamelodia melanocephala) 
Length, about 8% inches. 
Range: Breeds from the Pacific coast to Ne- 
braska and the Dakotas, and from southern 
Canada to southern Mexico; winters in Mexico. 
Habits and economic status: The black- 
headed grosbeak takes the place in the West 
of the rosebreast in the East, and, like it, is a 
fine songster. Like it, also, the blackhead 
readily resorts to orchards and gardens and is 
common in agricultural districts. The bird has 
a very powerful bill and easily crushes or cuts 
into the firmest fruit. It feeds upon cherries, 
apricots, and other fruits, and also does some 
damage to green peas and beans; but it is so 
active a foe of certain horticultural pests that 
we can afford to overlook its faults, Several 
kinds of scale insects are freely eaten, and one, 
the black olive scale, constitutes a fifth of the 
total food. In May many cankerworms and 
codling moths are consumed, and almost a sixth 
of the bird’s seasonal food consists of flower 
beetles, which do incalculable damage to culti- 
vated flowers and to ripe fruit. For each 
quart of fruit consumed by the black-headed 
grosbeak it destroys in actual bulk more than 
1% quarts of black olive scales and one quart 
of flower beetles besides a generous quantity 
of codling-moth pupe and cankerworms. It is 
obvious that such work as this pays many 
times over for the fruit destroyed. 
SONG SPARROW (Melospiza melodia) 
Length, about 614 inches. The heavily spot- 
ted breast with heavy central blotch is charac- 
teristic. 
Range: Breeds in the United States (except 
the South Atlantic and Gulf States), southern 
Canada, southern Alaska, and Mexico; winters 
in Alaska and most of the United States south- 
ward. 
Habits and economic status: Like the famil- 
iar little “chippy,” the song sparrow is one of 
our most domestic species, and builds its nest 
in hedges or in garden shrubbery close to 
houses, whenever it is reasonably safe from the 
house cat, which, however, takes heavy toll of 
the nestlings. It is a true harbinger of spring, 
and its delightful little song is trilled forth from 
the top of some green shrub in early March 
and April, before most of our other songsters 
have thought of leaving the sunny South, Song 
sparrows vary much in habits, as well as in 
size and coloration. Some forms live along 
streams bordered by deserts, others in swamps 
among bulrushes and tules, others in timbered 
regions, others on rocky barren hillsides, and 
still others in rich, fertile valleys. With such 
a variety of habitat, the food of the species 
naturally varies considerably. About three- 
fourths of its diet consists of the seeds of 
noxious weeds and one-fourth of insects. Of 
these, beetles, especially weevils, constitute the 
major portion. Ants, wasps, bugs (including 
the black olive scale), and caterpillars are also 
eaten. Grasshoppers are taken by the eastern 
birds, but not by the western ones. 
