228 Twelve Months With 



These birds are not universally condemned, how- 

 ever, because of the local damage done to the olive 

 crop. Neither are the bobolinks universally con- 

 demned because of the serious damage done every 

 year in the rice fields of the south. On the con- 

 trary, the robin and the bobolink are two of our 

 most beloved birds. 



In some sections of the country, and at certain 

 seasons, from fifty to sixty-five per cent of the Eng- 

 lish sparrow's diet consists of grain,* and in some 

 states growing wheat and oat crops have been 

 heavily damaged by these birds, but in most sec- 

 tions where grain constitutes a considerable portion 

 of their food, it is waste grain, of no value to any 

 one. No reason is perceived for universal con- 

 demnation of the English sparrow because of occa- 

 sional local depredations. 



A recent investigation made by the Bureau of 

 Biological Survey, however, shows that in the 

 west these birds are effective enemies of the alfalfa 

 weevil, and that during the month of Alay, in the 

 Salt Lake Valley, Utah, thirty-six per cent of their 

 food consisted of alfalfa weevils, and about nine- 

 teen per cent caterpillars, and that later in the 

 season, from July i to 15, thirty-five per cent con- 

 sisted of grasshoppers. Furthermore, these spar- 

 rows have practically exterminated the measuring 

 caterpillars from our cities, and they have been of 

 more help than all other birds combined in gather- 

 ing up the seeds of noxious weeds about yards and 



♦ Bull. 107, U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 2. 



