BIRDS OF FIELD AND QAB.DEN. 295 



of seed, fruit, and insects. The native Sparrows destroy- 

 very little grain, great quantities of weed seeds and insects, 

 and hardly any cultivated fruit ; they are, therefore, almost 

 entirely harmless. They frequent grass fields, cultivated 

 fields, and gardens, and in some cases orchards ; thus their 

 good work is done where it is of great benefit to the farmer. 



Dr. Judd tells us that the food of Sparrows consists of 

 from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent, animal matter, and 

 from sixty-five to seventy-five per cent, vegetable matter; 

 this is exclusive of the mineral matter, which is mostly 

 swallowed as an aid to digestion. Beneficial insects sel- 

 dom amount to more than two per cent, of the food ; this 

 is a very low average. The Flycatchers and Swallows take a 

 very much larger per cent, of useful insects. Sparrows may 

 do some slight harm in distributing the seeds of weeds ; but, 

 as their stomachs grind the food most thoroughly, it is proba- 

 ble that very few seeds pass through the alimentary canal in 

 a condition to germinate. 



On the other side of the account we find that insect pests 

 make up from ten. to twenty per cent, of the year's food ; 

 these are mainly grasshoppers and cutworms, army worms 

 and their allies, and beetles, such as click beetles and weevils. 

 Bugs are eaten in small quantities. While nearly all the 

 native Sparrows eat Geometrid caterpillars, like the canker- 

 worms, only a few have been known to eat the hairy species. 

 Such weevils as injure clover and strawberries are destroyed 

 in large numbers ; also some flea beetles and leaf-eating 

 beetles are eaten. 



The young of Sparrows are almost entirely insectivorous 

 until they leave the nest ; and, as many of these birds usually 

 rear at least two broods in a season, they do great good in 

 the gardens and fields while fearing their young. 



When the good work of destroying insect pests is practi- 

 cally over for the season, the Sparrows turn at once to the 

 ripening seeds of weeds. The number of such seeds that a 

 single bird will eat in a day has never been ascertained ; but 

 a Tree Sparrow was found to have in its stomach seven hun- 

 dred seeds of pigeon grass, and a Snowflake had taken at 

 one meal a thousand seeds of pigweed. The Japanese mil- 



