27 
eaten only to a slight extent, so that as a whole the Sparrows’ insect 
diet may be considered beneficial. 
Their vegetable food is limited almost exclusively to hard seeds 
This might seem to indicate that the birds feed to some extent upon 
grain, but the stomachs examined show only one kind—oats—and but 
little of that. The great bulk of the food is made up of grass and weed 
seed, which form almost the entire diet during winter, and the amount 
cousumed is immense. 
Anyone acquainted with the agricultural region of the Upper Missis- 
sippi Valley can not have failed to notice the enormous growth of 
weeds in every waste spot where the original sward has been disturbed. 
> 
\ 
Fig. 14.—Field sparrow. 
By the roadside, on the borders of cultivated fields, or in abandoned 
fields, wherever they can obtain a foothold, masses of rank weeds spring 
up, and often form impenetrable thickets which afford food and shelter 
for immense numbers of birds and enable them to withstand great cold 
and the most terrible blizzards. A person visiting one of these weed 
patches on a sunny morning in January, when the thermometer is 20° 
or more below zero, will be struck with the life and animation of the 
busy little inhabitants. Instead of sitting forlorn and half frozen, they 
may be seen flitting from branch to branch, twittering and fluttering, 
and showing every evidence of enjoyment and perfect comfort. If one 
