25 G THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



Ypsilanti (country, one and one-half miles from town). William Lainbie: The 

 Sparrows came out from the city when the wheat was first ripe, and fed on it and 

 tangled clown the straw. The most of them went away after harvest. (September 

 29, 1886. Present five or six years.) 



Mississippi. — Columbus. D. C. Hodo : They are injurious to grain, eating all kinds. 

 (September 21, 1886. Present about two years.) 



Missouri. — Oregon. William Kaucher : In August it gathers in large flocks and in- 

 vades the grain fields ; but the numbers are not so great as to make these inroads 

 very serious as yet. (September 21, 1886. Present about four years.) 



New Jersey. — Blawenburgh. David C. Voorhees: The Sparrow devours wheat, 

 corn, and other grains ; eating the wheat from the head in the field at the time of 

 ripening, and afterwards in the shock and stack. It strips the husk off the corn at 

 the small end of the ear and eats the grains when they are in the s soft, milky state. 

 It is eminently a granivorous bird, and will thrive with no insect food whatever. It 

 appropriates food thrown out for the chickens, creeps through knot holes in stables, 

 barns, and store-houses, and devours the grain in the racks and cribs to a very damag- 

 ing extent. (December, 1885, and August, 1886. Present about three years.) 



Caldwell (country). Marcus S. Crane: A flock gathers about our stacks of wheat, 

 rye, and oats every season, and feeds on the grain. A pane of glass fell out of a 

 window in the granary and the Sparrows soon learned to enter and steal wheat from 

 the bin. Occasionally I have seen them forage in the field. (November 30, 1886. 

 Present about sixteen years.) 



Haclcensaek. Henry Stewart: It is very injurious to wheat and corn crops. I have 

 seen a strip of wheat 10 feet wide laid down level all around the edge of the field. 

 It injures field corn by tearing open the husks and eating the grain. (February 5, 

 1884. Present about fourteen years.) 



Hackensaek. Weldon ¥. Fosdick: I have seen the Sparrows for weeks in flocks of 

 300 or 400, eating rye and oats that had been stacked in barracks in the fall of the 

 year. I have not known them to meddle with grain in the spring when first planted. 

 (1885. Present about fourteen years.) 



New Providence. H. F. Barrell: It feeds only on grain and seeds. I have re- 

 peatedly seeu it in great numbers on fields of wheat and oats, eating the grain from 

 the head. (1885. Present about twenty years.) 



Passaic Bridge (suburbs). F. M. Carryl : It feeds in large flocks in fields of rye, 

 oats, wheat, and buckwheat, and birds killed were stuffed full of these grains. (Au- 

 gust 20, 1886. Present many years.) 



New York. — Baldwinsville. Rev. W. M. Beauchamp : It feeds largely upon wheat, 

 and perhaps on other grain, being driven in docks just in advance of the reaper. 

 (October 15, 1885. Present many years ) 



Clyde. William M. McLachlan : I have seen great numbers on my grain stacks, 

 stripping the grain off wherever exposed. (May 15, 1884.) 



Constantia. Wallace D. Rhines: It is very injurious to wheat and oats. It does 

 not eat as much as it wastes by breaking off the stems and shelling out the grain 

 after being cut. (August 23, 1886. Present four or five years.) 



Fredonia (country). C. E. Bartram: Flocks pull down the grain and destroy by 

 shucking it out and scattering it over the ground. (August 25, 1886. Present about 

 sixteeu 5 ears. ) 



Ithaca (suburbs). Prof. I. P. Roberts: It injures wheat, rye, oats, and barley on 



the stalk, in shock, and in the barn. (August 24, 1886. Present about three years.) 



Le Roy (country). Prof. F. M. Comstock : It eats grain in the field before it is cut, 



and after it is drawn into the barn. It lives in docks about barns and in straw and 



hay stacks. (October 12, 18^6.) 



Long Island City. W. b\ Hendrickson : I have seen docks numbering hundreds in 

 the grain fields in June when the grain was ripening, and believe they did a great 

 deal of damage. (October 22. 1885.) 



