148 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



vegetables are often attacked, green peas being especially 

 liable to injury. In many localities it has become very diffi- 

 cult to get a crop of peas, on account of the sparrows, which 

 destroy the blossoms at first and later attack the pods. Green 

 corn, lettuce, cabbage, and other vegetables are also attacked, 

 and not infrequently the newly planted seeds are scratched to 

 the surface and devoured. 



The list of the sparrow's sins of commission is by no 

 means ended. In attacking grain of various kinds these birds 

 probably cause more loss than in all the ways mentioned above. 

 From the time small grains, like wheat and oats, are planted 

 until safely gathered in the bin, they are liable to suffer from 

 sparrow attack. The greatest damage is probably done when 

 the grain is in the soft condition which immediately precedes 

 ripening, but it also suffers greatly at the time of planting and 

 in the "shock" just after harvesting. Besides the grains 

 already mentioned these birds attack Indian corn, rye, barley, 

 sorghum, rice, and buckwheat. 



These charges against the sparrow's food habits are grave 

 indeed. There is something to be said in his favor, however. 

 Mr. Charles W. Nash ' states that " Sparrows, like the majority 

 of birds, will not often eat the spiny larvae of Vanessa antiopa, 

 which is one of our shade-tree pests that few birds will touch. 

 Besides this I have seen them take moths of almost any kind, 

 including the large cecropia and luna moths and the tussock 

 moth (both the winged male and the wingless female), beetles 

 of many kinds, even such large species as the Dytiscus, which 

 they find on the sidewalks beneath the electric lights, to 

 which the beetles are attracted at night, the green cabbage- 

 worm (the larva of the cabbage-butterfly) — of these they eat 

 great numbers. They also hunt about fences and take the 

 pupse of this same butterfly. The currant-worms and mature 



1 See "The Birds of Ontario in relation to Agriculture," second edi- 

 tion, p. 68, published by the Ontario Department of Agriculture. 



