304 THE ENGLISH SPAKKOW IN AMERICA. 



voted one of its meetings to the consideration of the Sparrow question, 

 and the conclusions, which were widely published in the newspapers, 

 led to still further discussion. 



Meanwhile the farmers of the country were becoming interested in 

 the matter ; numerous articles of more or less value appeared in the ag- 

 ricultural press, and occasional essays and installments of evidence of 

 more than usual value were presented before scientific societies and 

 published iu their proceedings. 



Finally, in September, 1883, a committee was appointed by the Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists' Union to investigate the charges against the Spar- 

 row. A circular was prepared and distributed, and much valuable 

 information was collected. A report based on this information was 

 submitted to the council of the American Ornithologists' Union at a 

 meeting held in Washington, D. 0., April 21, 1885, and was afterward 

 published iu Forest and Stream (XXV, August 6, 18S5, pp. 24, 25), and 

 is now reprinted in this Bulletin (page 315). 



Subsequently, all the evidence collected by the committee of the Or- 

 nithologists' Union was turned over to the Department of Agriculture, 

 as already stated, and has been used in the preparation of the present 

 Bulletin. 



TESTIMONY RELATING^ MAINLY TO THE SPARROW IN AMERICA. 



[American Naturalist, Vol. XV, pp. 392, 393.] 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW IN ILLINOIS. 



* * * The thorough examination of the food and food habits of the English Spar- 

 row, which is certain to result from the intense and universal interest the little 

 stranger has awakened, will give us a mass of valuable facts for comparison with 

 those accumulated in Europe, where the debate concerning the good and evil of its 

 life has been vigorous and long-continued. We shall thus be able to trace much 

 more fully and exactly than has ever yet been done the effects of widely changed con- 

 ditions upon the alimentary regimen of a bird. 



Now that the stage of more or less ignorant and passionate discussions and personal 

 vituperation seems nearly to have passed, contributions of fact will probably not be 

 unwelcome. I add a few notes on the food of twenty-five birds shot in and around 

 Aurora, 111., in September of two successive years, 1879 and 1880. 



The elements of the food at this time were quite few and simple, consisting almost 

 wholly of fragments of grain picked up on the streets and of the seeds of a few of the 

 commonest grasses. At a time when 30 per cent, of the food of the robin, 20 per cent. 

 of that of the catbird, and 90 per cent, of that of the bluebird consisted of insects, no 

 insects were found in the stomachs of these birds, except traces of three grasshoppers, 

 making perhaps per cent, of the food. Fragments of corn, wheat, and oats amounted 

 to about 40 per cent., and the seeds of grasses to as much more. The common pigeon 

 grass (Setaria viridis) was much the most abundant species; but S. glauca and Pani- 

 cum sanguineum occurred quite frequently, and three or four species of Panlcum and 

 Eragrostis, which I did not determine, were also present in small quantity. One bird 

 had eaten many hemp seeds, five had taken a very few seeds of " smart weed " (Poly- 

 gonum), and two had eaten little else than the seeds of the common garden sunflowerc 

 (S. A. Forbes, Normal, 111.) 



