SPARROWS 221 



but spreads far into the country and is found about prac- 

 tically all the farms. The species is strongly gregarious and 

 in summer and fall large flocks visit the grain fields and con- 

 sume great quantities of ripening grain. The birds roost in 

 colonies in thick vines, crevices, and sheltered nooks about 

 buildings, and when no better site can be found, in the bare 

 branches of trees. 



The nests are bulky structures of dry grass, straw, twine, 

 and feathers ; they are placed in a great variety of situations 

 — ^bird boxes, nooks about the eaves of houses and barns, or 

 vines climbing over a building being preferred; natural hol- 

 lows in trees or old holes of woodpeckers also are used, and in 

 many instances the nests are placed in the branches of trees. 

 The eggs are 4 to 7 in number and three or more broods are 

 reared each season. 



Food habits. — This species is everywhere considered a pest 

 on account of its destruction of grain, fruit, and garden crops, 

 its defacement of buildings, its pugnacious disposition, and 

 its attacks on the native wild birds. Within recent years, it 

 has been found guilty on another charge — ^that of aiding in 

 the dissemination of chicken mites, a serious pest in poultry 

 yards.* It is possible, by concerted action on the part of any 

 community, greatly to reduce the number of sparrows in a 

 given locality, either by poisoning or trapping. Directions for 

 destroying the birds are given in a publication prepared in the 

 Biological Survey .f 



PURPLE FINCH: Carpodacus purpureus purpureus 



(Gmelin) . 



State records. — The purple finch is a rather uncommon win- 

 ter resident in Alabama and a regular spring and fall migrant. 

 McCormack observed it at Leighton from January 4 to March 

 16, 1890. I collected a specimen there. May 10, 1912, and saw 

 another, April 22, 1914. Near Town Creek, December 19, 

 1915, I saw a flock of about 10 in an osage-orange hedge. 

 Brown, at Coosada, says of it: "Rather uncommon during 

 the winter ; most numerous about the middle of March, when 



K&^;N^^'¥h^"Mh'siJ'r"row';fa- Zl\ Farmers' Ball. 493. U. S. Dept. 

 Agr., repr. isi?. 



