EVIDENCE. INJURY TO GRAIN CROPS. 253 



Connecticut.— East Harlforcl (country). Willard E. Treat : I have often kuown it 

 to do considerable damage to a rye crop, making a clean sweep wherever it alighted. 

 (October 23, 1886. Present about three years.) 



Stratford. Robert W. Curtiss : I have seen it eating wheat and oats in the field, 

 when ripe, doing injury according to the number in the vicinity. (February 6, 1886.) 



District of Columbia. — Washington. Robert Ridgway : In the summer of 1886 I 

 saw flocks of hundreds feeding on grain in stacks in Prince William Couuty, Va., and 

 I have also seen the same elsewhere. (February 8, 1887. Present sixteen or seven- 

 teen years.) 



Washington. William Saunders: Seeds of many kinds are eaten greedily. It is 

 very difficult to start grass anywhere about the grounds, as the seed is eaten as fast 

 as sown. (April 13, 1887.) 



Georgia. — Americus. M. B. Council. Country: It picks up the newly-sown seed, 

 and is very destructive to the unharvested, ripened grain. (September 2, 1886. 

 Present about two years.) 



Hamilton. Charles L. Dendy : One of our citizens, Judge William I. Hudson, in- 

 forms me that he was trying to mature the seeds of Millo maize from a small plat in 

 his garden, but it was all destroyed by the Sparrow. (September 8, 1886. Present 

 five or six years.) 



Kingston. Postmaster: It attacks wheat and oats before they are ripe, and eats 

 all the grain out of the heads. (October 11, 1886. Present about two years.) 



La Grange. Thomas H. Whitaker : Like tbe rice bird, it injures tops of wheat, 

 oats, rye, and barley. (September 3, 1886. Present about five years.) 



Illinois. — Alton Junction. John K6ch: When the wheat stands in shocks I have 

 seen at some places over twenty Sparrows on one shock. (September 25, 1886. Pres- 

 ent about four years.) 



Bernadotte. Dr. W. S. Strode: All the small-grain crops are more or less injured 

 and the ears of new corn are torn open and the grain is bitten in two and eaten. (Sep- 

 tember 7, 1887.) 



In my daily rides now I often notice small flocks of them out in the country, often 

 4 or 5 miles from any town, and on shooting one and examining the stomach I find it 

 to contain for the most part wheat or rye, occasionally with bits of corn grains and 

 weed seeds. (September 20, 1887. Present two or three years.) 



Fernwood. George B. Holmes: I do not know that it injures graiu crops, but I 

 notice that the oat and wheat fields are always filled with flocks of them in the last 

 of July and early part of August. (August 27, 1886. Present about five years.) 



GriggsviUe. T. W. Parker: It has not been observed to feed on cereals until mature 

 in the fall, when it feeds' in flocks on corn and small grain. (September 7, 1885. 

 Present two or three years.) 



Louisville. Conrad E. Kaehler : Where the Sparrow is abundant, thousands of 

 them take possession of the grain fields and greatly damage them. (September 27, 

 1886. Present about six years.) 



Peoria. W. S. Cobleigh: I have heard farmers say that it attacks oats in the field 

 and shock, and sometimes destroys a considerable amount. (August 24, 1886. Pres- 

 ent five years.) 



Quincy. T. Butterworth : It eats the wheat and oats in fields near the city, and 

 threatens to be a greater curse than the grasshopper or locust. (August 19, 1886. 

 Present about ten years.) 



Indiana. — Angola. Frank M. Powers : They alight on wheat in flocks, pecking the 

 grain and breaking down the stalks. (November 5, 1886. Present about six years.) 



Bedford. Noyes E. Str<:ut : It injures all kinds of small grain; gathering in largo 

 numbers upon it when in the shock and stack. (September 13, 1886. Present seven 

 or eight years.) 



Broolcville. Amos W. Butler : It feeds upon corn, wheat, rye, oats, millet, and grass 

 seed, being most destructive to wheat when " shocked" in the field. (Autumn, 1885.) 



