296 THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



I have examined many, and found not the least indication of their having taken insect 

 food. (February 12, 1887. Present ten or eleven years.) 



Utlca. Thomas Birt: It will devour grasshoppers and some kinds of grubs when 

 it can get nothing else. Some three years ago, in the latter part of a summer which 

 had been very hot and dry, I noticed the Sparrows busy in the meadows. Curiosity 

 compelled me to watch them closely, when, to their credit be it said, I saw hundreds 

 of them bringing an equal number of grasshoppers, tearing them to pieces and bolt- 

 ing them dowu. Hunger must have compelled them to do this, for I am very sure 

 nothing else would. (September 16, 1887.) 



Westport. George C. Osborne : When it can not get grain it may eat insects, but 

 I have never found an insect in its crop. (November 5, 1^86. Present about ten years. ) 



Ohio. — Akron (suburbs). Prof. E. W. Claypole : In nesting time it feeds its young 

 upon insects ; and it picks plant-lice from the trees sometimes. (December 31, 1886. 

 Present about eleven years.) 



Avondale. Charles Dury : April 28, 1882, I began an investigation of the food and 

 habits of these birds, being desirous of obtaining correct data in regard to them, and 

 particularly to test their desirability in a general way. In this paper I give a brief 

 summary of the food I found in them. Where the contents of the stomach was not 

 recognizable to the unassisted eye, it was examined under a power of about thirty 

 diameters. The birds secured were both adult and young, though all fully fledged 

 birds and able to fly. No nestlings were obtainable as I did not alio w them to nest on 

 the place, which consisted of five acres of ground filled with fruit and other trees. 

 By baiting a spot with oats for several days without molesting the birds, I was able 

 to kill many at a discharge of a No. 12 gun loaded with an ounce of No. 10 shot. 

 One day forty-three were killed in several shots, and of these several selected at 

 random (males, females, and young) were taken to be a fair sample of the entire lot. 

 Others were shot singly from fruit and shade trees, and still others were killed while 

 hopping in the grass. 



At intervals as time permitted from April 28, 1882, until January, 1888, I examined 

 about one hundred and ten birds and noted the contents of stomachs. Every month 

 in the year was represented. The food of these birds was seeds of various kinds, 

 grain, oats, broken grains of corn, buds of trees, fruit, and bits of bread and table 

 scraps. I enumerate below the instances where insects were found in any stomach, 

 with the dates. 



April 28, 1882. Male ; contained seeds, whole and broken, with small round sand and 

 part of shell or outer skin of minute hemipterous insect. 



March 2, 1883. Two birds had fragments of small beetles, Apliodius (one beetle in 

 each case), in addition to the seeds and grain with which their stomachs were filled. 



April 20, 1863. Male and female shot from house top. Male contained, in addition to 

 seeds and buds, one head and part of body of small (Staphylinid) beetle. 



June 2, 1883. One bird had remains of two small beetles with the broken grains of 

 corn and oats that its stomach was filled with. 



Juno 3D, 1884. One bird contained the remains of two small beetles {Chrysomelids). 



July 5, 1836. In addition to the soft pulp of green oats one bird had the fragments 

 of a large black ant in its stomach. 



The above were all the insects I was able to find in any of them. I am astonished 

 at my want of success in finding insects in these birds, as several persons have re- 

 ported to me instances where they had observed Sparrows catching insects. My 

 observation has been mostly confined to the home place, yet it is a very favorable 

 place for larva) and insects of all kinds, and before the Sparrows came our native 

 birds were abundant and found plenty of food and shelter in the trees and bushes 

 with which the place was covered. (February 3, 1888.) 



Cincinnati. William Hubbell Fisher: He is a seed eater, and I have never seen 

 him take an insect. He will not eat the worms that destroy our trees, though they 

 are most abundant. My data are derived from direct observation. He has had no 

 appreciable effect on insect life here. (September 9, 1884.) 



