INJURY TO CORN AND SORGHUM. 75 



tacks and seriously injures field corn, especially while in the milk. The 

 following is but a small part of the testimony on this subject, and a 

 careful consideration of all which has been collected shows that the 

 Sparrow threatens to be ii dangerous enemy to this crop in the future. 

 From Dr. Fred. Sumner Smith, West Hartford, Conn.: 



I can speak from observation of their raids on corn, some ears being completely- 

 stripped of kernels, the little pests husking and shelling as they went along, so tbat 

 not a shock in the field escaped them. (November, 1885.) 



From J. IS". Bagg, West Springfield, Mass. : 



It strips down green corn in the fields, sometimes one-third or more the length of 

 the ear, and is doing so now. (September 7, 1883. Present five or six years. ) 



From G-. W. Daugherty, Carmichael's, Greene County, Pa.: 



It tears open the shucks of stauding corn so as to admit the rain or wet, causing it 

 to mold or rot. (February 21, 1857. Present six or seven years.) 



From Dr. B. JET. Warren, West Chester, Pa.: 



They greatly damage the corn crop, tearing open the husk, devouring the tender 

 part of the ear, and exposing the remainder to the ravages of insects and to atmos- 

 pheric changes. (January, 1887.) 



From Thomas Shroyer, Preston, Hamilton County, Ohio : 



We have seen many fields of corn bordering its resorts, -where the ears were greatly 

 damaged while yet soft. (September 23, 1886. Present about eleven years.) 



From G. C. Bunseu, West Belleville, Saint Clair County, 111.: 



I recently saw a flock in my cornfield and gave them credit for destroying grass- 

 hoppers, which they will do occasionally; on examination, however, I found they 

 were in partnership with the latter, eating out the corn, which the grasshoppers had 

 laid bare. (Autumn, 1885.) 



From T. S. Williams, Dupont, Jefferson County, Ind.: 



They fe^Iit the husk on corn as soon as it is in the milk, and eat and destroy large 

 quantities of it. (October 6, 188C. Present about six years.) 



INJURY TO SORGHUM. 



The several varieties of sorghum are known in different parts of the 

 country by so many different names that it is not always possible to 

 tell just what is meant when a person complains of injury to his crop 

 and gives the local name of the variety of grain attacked. In most 

 cases the names Egyptian rice, Russian millet, pearl millet, chicken 

 corn, Millo maize, etc., denote varieties of sorghum, and the Sparrow 

 has proved very destructive to seed of this kind, wherever grown. 



W. H. Wherritt, of Lancaster, Garrard County, Ky., writes: 



I have known it to destroy the whole crop of sorghum seed. (October XI, 1886. 

 Present eight or nine years.) 



Euth C. Burton, of Taylorsviile, Spencer County, Ky., writes: 



It injures wheat fields and the seed top of sorghum. (October 30, 1886. Preset 

 six or eight years. ) 



H. F. Barrel!, of New Providence, Union County, N. J., writes: 

 A few years since I had about one-fourth of an acre of the so-called Egyptian rice 

 destroyed by these pests. ( 188"). Present about twenty years.) 



