RILEY ON ITS INSECTIVOROUS HABITS. 127 



diet, lie examined daring the months of March, April, May, and June 

 fifty specimens, of which number forty-seven showed cereal and vegeta- 

 ble food, one contained a single (unidentified) Coleopterous insect in 

 conjunction with an abundance of wheat, and the two remaining birds 

 were void of any nutritious matter. 



He also examined the stomachs of one hundred and fourteen English 

 Sparrows, between March 1, 1879, and June 12, 1882. Only five of these 

 stomachs contained any traces of insects. These were: 



No. 12, Maxell 3, 1879.— One beetle (undetermined). No. 58, May 23, 1880 

 (young). — Apterous insects (unidentified). No. 74, September 13, 1880 

 (male adult). — One potato-beetle (probably Dorypliora 10-lincata). No. 75, 

 September 3, 1880 (male adult). — Diptera (unidentified). No. 112, June 12, 

 1882 (female adult). — Two diptera and three aptera (unidentified). 



Mr. Charles Dury has given in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, of 

 May 6, 1883, the results of the dissection of over fifty English Sparrows. 

 One of the sparrows was killed April 28 in a cherry tree covered with 

 insects; but the distended crop contaiued nothing but grain, and one 

 infinitesimal portion of the skin of a Hemipterous insect. Five spar- 

 rows were killed by him March 25 in the Zoological Garden; they were 

 found filled with grain and seed, and three contained minute portions 

 of beetles. In all the others no insect remains were found. 



Mr. Barrows has collected a number of records, of which the follow- 

 ing have been submitted to me, as among the more reliable: 



Mr. James Fletcher, Ottawa, Canada, examined about a dozen Spar- 

 rows, which were shot in the early part of March, before the beginning 

 of spring weather ; none of the specimens contained any food other 

 than bread or crushed grain from horse droppings. 



Dr. W. S. Strode, of Bernadotte, Fulton County, 111., made a num- 

 ber of dissections during the months of August and September, 1887, 

 the report of which has been sent in to Dr. Merriam. He found no in- 

 sects. During the first half of August the food was made up almost 

 entirely of wheat and rye, and occasionally a few weed seeds. In Sep- 

 tember grapes were the principal food; the Sparrows would insert their 

 bills, suck out the juice and pulp, but discard the seeds. 



One other instance, much more recent, of the study of thefocd-habits 

 of this bird should be mentioned before I conclude. It is an examina- 

 tion of a large number of stomachs by Mr. W. Brodie, the results of 

 which have been presented before the biological section of the Cana- 

 dian Institute and published in separate sheet. Mr. Brodie found that 

 out of forty-three stomachs taken from August 20 to September 13, 

 twenty-seven contained remains of locusts, or so-called grasshoppers, 

 and out of three hundred and seven stomachs in all collected from May 

 7, 1881, to September 20, 1887, one hundred and thirty-two contained 

 insect remains, including for the most part locusts (fifty-eight cases, not 

 including birds which he fed with them), among which the (Edipoda 

 Carolina and Caloptenus femurrubrum were recognized. In four cases 

 Coleoptera were found and referred to Carabidae, and in seven others a 



