SPARROWS 231 



its name of grasshopper sparrow. The nest is placed on the 

 ground in a meadow, well concealed in the vegetation; it is 

 composed of grasses and is arched over with them. 



Food habits. — Although named grasshopper sparrow from 

 its song, stomach examinations have shown this bird to merit 

 the name also from its food habits, for grasshoppers consti- 

 tute nearly one-fourth of its food. Caterpillars amount to 14 

 per cent of the total, and more than half of these are cut- 

 worms. The army worm also is frequently eaten. The total 

 animal matter in the stomachs examined amounted to 63 per 

 cent. 



Judd, after examining 170 stomachs, sums up the bird's 

 economic relations as follows: 



As a destroyer of insect pests the grasshopper sparrow is 

 most efficient, * * * and both the vegetable and animal food 

 considered, it seems to be individually the most useful species 

 of bird whose food habits have thus far been investigated.* 



HENSLOW SPARROW: Nemospiza hensloivii susurrans 



(Brewster) .f 



State records. — The Henslow sparrow (fig. 15) is apparent- 

 ly an uncommon winter resident in the southern half of the 

 State, but its shyness and retiring habits probably account in 

 part for its apparent rarity. N. C. Brown took 10 specimens 

 at Coosada between February 18 and April 4, 1878, in old 

 fields of rice and broom sedge.J Dr. Avery found it rare and 

 took only a single specimen, January 12, 1890, 12 miles south- 

 west of Greensboro. One was taken by C. P. Rowley, at Gal- 

 lion, April 26, 1894, one by Golsan at Autaugaville, March 11, 

 1915, one by Holt at Bay Minette, March 30, 1912, and several 

 were seen by Holt and myself at Orange Beach, January 30, 

 1912. 



General habits. — This little sparrow lives in fields of dense, 

 matted grass, where it hides with great persistence, and when 

 flushed flies only a few yards, then seeks shelter again under 

 the vegetation and swiftly runs out of sight. It is rather 



*Judd S D The relation of sparrows to sericulture : Biol. Surv. Bull. IS, p. 83, 1901. 

 tPwnerh'trb'nlu hciulowi hcnslowl of the A. O. U. Cheek-Hat; for chanae of nam* 

 >ee The Auk, vol. 86, p. 210, 1918 ; and vol. 36, p. 270, 1919. 

 tBrown N C.; Bull. Nattall Ornith. Cluh, vol. 4, p. 8, 1879. 



