76 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



Lloyd McKim Garrison, of Orange, N. J., writes: 



In our neighborhood grain is very little grown ; a neighbor, however, has planted 

 Russian millet for fodder and the grain of this is devoured by the Sparrows with 

 alarming rapidity. (February 11, 1884. Present many years.) 



William Saunders, superintendent of garden and grounds of the 

 Department of Agriculture, at Washington, D. 0., says: 



The seed of ornamental grasses is taken as fast as it matures, and can only be saved 

 by bagging the heads before they ripen. When experimenting with sorghum the 

 same trouble was experienced, and some experiments failed from this cause alone. 

 (April 13, 1887.) 



Thomas Hardeman, of Macon, Ga., writes: 



Millo maize and millet are not suffered to ripen their seed. (October 11, 1886. 

 Present ten or fifteen years.) 



Many other reports of injury to "millet" have been received, and 

 probably in most cases this term is used to indicate a species of 

 ISetaria, also known as Hungarian grass. 



Mr. E. L. Brown, of Eufaula, Barbour County, Ala., writes: 



It eats millet seed before it fully matures. It is impossible to save such seed. 

 (September 17, 1886. Present about four years.) 



Mary Tuttle, of West Windsor, Eaton County, Mich., writes: 



Millet fields have been quite destroyed by the Sparrow. (October 14, 1886. Pres- 

 ent about two years.) 



The late Dr. J. M. Wheaton, of Columbus, Ohio, wrote: 



I have seen large flocks feediug on tbe seed of Hungarian grass in the autumn. 

 (April 18, 1884. Present about twelve years.) 



M. Abbott Frazar, Mount Auburn, Middlesex County, Mass., writes : 



July 30 I planted about 50 square yards with Hungarian grass. Two weeks of 

 dry weather followed and the grass did not come up. From fifty to two hundred 

 English Sparrows camped there during all this time and busied themselves with 

 scratching up seeds. When the grass did come up it was badly injured. (Autumn, 



1885.) 



INJURY TO RICE. 



Wherever the Sparrow has reached the rice-growing districts he has 

 damaged the rice to a greater or less extent, but this crop annually suf- 

 fers so severely from the attacks of rice-birds and blackbirds that the 

 presence of a few English Sparrows is often overlooked. In the Middle 

 States the rice-bird or bobolink (Dolielionyx oryzivorus) feeds largely on 

 the so-called wild rice {Zizania aquatica), and often the Sparrow may be 

 found feeding in the same places. • 



F. T. Cuthbert, of Plainfield, Isf. J., writes : 



It feeds extensively upon wheat, grass seed, and all the smaller grains. In the 

 wild-rice pads it mingles with the bobolink and fattens on the rice. (February, 

 1887.) 



Further South it has already attacked the rice-fields, although its im 

 juries as yet have attracted little attention, except in the rice districts 

 of Louisiana, 



