CHIPPING SPARROW (Spizella 
passerina) 
Length, about 5% inches. Distinguished by 
the chestnut crown, black line through eye, and 
black bill. 
Range: Breeds throughout the United States, 
south to Nicaragua, and north to southern 
Canada; winters in the southern United States 
and southward. 
Habits and economic status: The chipping 
sparrow is very friendly and domestic, and 
often builds its nest in gardens and orchards 
or in the shrubbery close to dwellings. Its 
gentle and confiding ways endear it to all bird 
lovers. It is one of the most insectivorous of 
all the sparrows. Its diet consists of about 42 
per cent of insects and spiders and 58 per cent 
of vegetable matter. The animal food consists 
largely of caterpillars, of which it feeds a 
great many to its young. Besides these, it eats 
beetles, including many weevils, of which one 
stomach contained 30. It also eats ants, wasps, 
and bugs. Among the latter are plant lice and 
black olive scales. The vegetable food is prac- 
tically all weed seed. A nest with 4 young of 
this species was watched at different hours on 
4 days. In the 7 hours of observation 119 
feedings were noted, or an average of 17 feed- 
ings per hour, or 4% feedings per hour to each 
nestling. This would give for a day of 14 
hours at least 238 insects eaten by the brood. 
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW 
(Zonotrichia leucophrys) 
Length, 7 inches. The only similar sparrow, 
the white throat, has a yellow spot in front of 
eye. 
Range: Breeds in Canada, the mountains of 
New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Mon- 
tana, and thence to the Pacific coast; winters 
in the southern half of the United States and 
in northern Mexico. 
Habits and economic status: This beautiful 
sparrow is much more numerous in the western 
than in the eastern States, where, indeed, it is 
rather rare. In the East it is shy and retiring, 
but it is much bolder and more conspicuous 
in the far West, and there often frequents 
gardens and parks. Like most of its family, 
it is a seed eater by preference, and insects 
comprise very little more than 7 per cent of its 
diet. Caterpillars are the largest item, with 
some beetles, a few ants and wasps, and some 
bugs, among which are black olive scales. The 
great bulk of the food, however, consists of 
weed seeds, which amount to 74 per cent of the 
whole. In California this bird is accused of 
eating the buds and blossoms of fruit trees, 
but buds or blossoms were found in only 30 
out of 516 stomachs, and probably it is only 
under exceptional circumstances that it does 
any damage in this way. Evidently neither the 
farmer nor the fruit grower has much to fear 
from the white-crowned sparrow. The little 
fruit it eats is mostly wild, and the grain eaten 
is waste or volunteer. 
16 
ENGLISH SPARROW (Passer 
domesticus) 
Length, about 64% inches. Its incessant chat- 
tering, quarrelsome disposition, and abundance 
and familiarity about human habitations dis- 
tinguish it from our native sparrows. 
Range: Resident throughout the United 
States and southern Canada. 
Habits and economic status: Almost univer- 
sally condemned since its introduction into the 
United States, the English sparrow has not 
only held its own, but has ever increased in 
numbers and extended its range in spite of all 
opposition. Its habit of driving out or even 
killing more beneficial species and the defiling 
of buildings by its droppings and by its own 
unsightly structures are serious objections to 
this sparrow. Moreover, in rural districts, it is 
destructive to grain, fruit, peas, beans, and 
other vegetables. On the other hand, the bird 
feeds to some extent on a large number of 
insect pests, and this fact points to the need of 
a new investigation of the present economic 
status of the species, especially as it promises 
to be of service in holding in check the newly 
introduced alfalfa weevil, which threatens the 
alfalfa industry in Utah and _ neighboring 
States. In cities most of the food of the Eng- 
lish sparrow is waste material secured from 
the streets. 
CROW BLACKBIRD (Quiscalus 
quiscula) 
Length, 12 inches. Shorter by at least 3 
inches than the other grackles with trough- 
shaped tails. Black, with purplish, bluish, and 
bronze reflections. 
Range: Breeds throughout the United States 
west to Texas, Colorado, and Montana, and in 
southern Canada; winters in the southern half 
of the breeding range. 
Habits and economic status: This blackbird 
is a beautiful species, and is well known from 
its habit of congregating in city parks and nest- 
ing there year after year. Like other species 
which habitually assemble in great flocks, it is 
capable of inflicting much damage on any crop 
it attacks, and where it is harmful a judicious 
reduction of numbers is probably sound policy. 
It shares with the crow and blue jay the evil 
habit of pillaging the nests of small birds of 
eggs and young. Nevertheless it does much 
good by destroying insect pests, especially 
white grubs, weevils, grasshoppers, and cater- 
pillars. Among the caterpillars are army 
worms and other cutworms. When blackbirds 
gather in large flocks, as in the Mississippi 
Valley, they may greatly damage grain, either 
when first sown or when in the milk. In win- 
ter they subsist mostly on weed seed and waste 
grain. 
