187 



rivulets. The deep woods and the clean, open fields are the only places 

 where it is generally absent, and even there it sometimes surprises us with 

 a burst of liquid song. 



Economic Status. The great numbers of the Song Sparrow render it 

 most important to the agriculturist. An analysis of its food shows that 

 only 2 per cent is composed of useful insects and 18 per cent of harmful 

 insects. Waste grain constitutes 4 per cent and weed seeds 50 per cent. 

 The remainder is composed of wild fruit and other unimportant material. 

 It is seen from this that the Song Sparrow is of considerable economic 

 importance. Investigation has shown that one-quarter of an ounce of 

 weed seed a day is a fair estimate of the amount consumed by a seed- 

 eating Sparrow. During the nine months the Song Sparrow is with us in the 

 average eastern Canadian locality the consumption amounts to four and 

 a quarter pounds per individual per year. Allowing seventy-five Song 

 Sparrows per square mile as a very conservative estimate of population, 

 we get a total for the southern cultivated parts of Ontario of over eleven 

 thousand tons of weed seeds destroyed annually by this one species. 



SS3. Lincoln's Sparrow, pr. — le pinson de Lincoln. Melospiza lincolni. L, 5-75. 

 Like the Song Sparrow but with a belt of buffy across the breast which is marked also with 

 small, fine spots. 



Distinctions. The above distinctions will separate Lincoln's from all other Sparrows 

 it may be confused with. 



Field Marks. A good view will show the faint buff breast and fine spotting. Other- 

 wise it is with difficulty separated in life from the Song Sparrow. The back is rather 

 freyer than the Song Sparrow and this often arouses a suspicion of the presence of Lincoln's 

 parrow that may be confirmed by other characters. 



Nesting. Similar to that of the Song Sparrow, on the ground. 



Distribution. The species is distributed all over America, breeding in the northern 

 coniferous woods. 



SUBSPECIES. Eastern and extreme western Lincoln's Sparrows can be differen- 

 tiated into two subspecies. The form occupying the territory here treated is the Eastern 

 Lincoln's Sparrow M. I. lincolni, the typical race. 



Not only a rare Sparrow but an interesting one. It has reduced hiding 

 in brush to as fine an art as any bird. When first disturbed it hops to a 

 branch, where it obtains a good view, regards the intruder for an instant, 

 and then dives into the tangle and is gone. The most diligent search 

 thereafter gives no more than a fleeting glimpse of a brown shadow dis- 

 appearing into the nearest brush pile. The species is a passing migrant 

 through the settled sections of Canada and is rare. 



584. Swamp Sparrow, pr. — le pinson des mahais. Melospiza georgiana. L, 

 5-89. Much like the Song Sparrow, but of stronger and less blended coloration and without 

 any distinct breast streaks or markings. 



Distinctions. The Swamp Sparrow is difficult to separate from several other forma 

 comparable in both colour and size. It may be distinguished from the Song Sparrow, 

 with which it is most likely to be confused by the unstreaked breast, and, in adult 

 birds, by the red crown. Young autumn birds strongly resemble juvenile White-throats 

 but lack the faint yellow loral spot, are not as evenly ruddy on the back, and usually have 

 a suggestion of an ashy bar across the shoulders at the base of the neck, an ashy cast to 

 the crown, and eyebrow lines that are absent in that species. It can be told from the 

 Tree Sparrow by the lack of the dark middle breast spot or white wing-bars. 



Field Marks. It resembles a Song Sparrow without breast streaks, a White-throat 

 without yellow loral spot, or a Tree Sparrow without wing-bars. In summer when the 

 Tree Sparrow is not present the red cap is distinctive. 

 28587—13 



