SPARROWS IN THE FIELD. 31 



usually amid the broom sedge and briers of the upland, and at no 

 great distance from cover. Some dwell along the draining ditch 

 previously referred to. The favorite resort, however, seems to be a 

 small clay knoll overrun with dewberries and hemmed in by trees on 

 a part of the bluff 200 yards from the nearest buildings. At the edge 

 of the bluff the}^ are sometimes mingled with song sparrows that come 

 up from the beach. Chipping sparrows are never found with them 

 at this point. Several pairs of grasshopper sparrows have their 

 homes in the hayfield, which extends back from the bluff, and one or 

 two pairs build in an adjoining briery old cornfield. All of them 

 prefer dry, grassj^ fields devoid of the cover which many other birds 

 find essential. No song or chipping sparrows enter very far into the 

 timothy, and field sparrows that occasionally venture in a little way 

 keep near the ditch. English sparrows breed in the gutters of the 

 house, in an abandoned dovecote, and in holes of trees standing in 

 the doorj^ard. They feed wherever grain is obtainable. 



This rough description of the habitats of the several kinds of spar- 

 rows will make clearer a more detailed consideration of the summer 

 food habits. 



Song sparrows during the breeding season run along the sandy and 

 pebbly beach of the Potomac and investigate the aquatic vegetation 

 cast up by the water and the logs and other debris left by the tide. 

 Here they secure certain kinds of ground-beetles which live at the 

 water's edge, running spiders of such species as are plentiful on the 

 beach, aquatic snails, dragon-fiies, and May-flies, as well as tlieir 

 favorite food, the seeds of the various polygonums, which generally 

 grow in moist places. In the gully above the farmhouse they obtain 

 blackberries, wild cherries, and mulberries. So far as my rather 

 limited observations go, this fruit is picked up from the ground — a 

 method that if habitual justifies a higher economic rating of song 

 sparrows; for during berrj^ time about 10 percent of the food of 

 song sparrows is furnished b}^ cultivated patches of blackberries and 

 raspberries, and if the fruit thus destroj^ed is entirely or chiefl}^ that 

 lying on the ground little damage is done to the crop. 



The song sparrows which breed in the catbriers of the guU}^ beside 

 the house and the honeysuckle-draped shrubbery of the almost per- 

 pendicular face of the bluff in front of the house make frequent 

 journeys to the dooryard and vegetable garden. One pair of song 

 sparrows built in a bush in the center of the garden, and were con- 

 stantlj^ seen in company with chipping sparrows, hopjjing about on 

 the ground among the beans and cabbages. Song sparrows fed also 

 along the road on the brink of the bluff. In the weedy growth of the 

 roadside which was a few inches high and consisted of cropped grass, 

 a little clover, and many such weeds as chickweed, knotweed, lamb's- 

 quarters, oxalis, sheep sorrel and rib-grass, they picked up weevils 

 and other beetles, and caterpillars, besides some of the lamb's-quar- 



