32 THE RELATION OF SPAEROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 



ters and knot weed, and in the adjoining field they found the seeds of 

 ' pigeon-grass, crab-grass, and paspalum. It was a common sight 



i) during earlj^ summer to see them hunting along the two rows of knot- 



weed in the road, and eveiy now and then scratching in the sand for 

 II i seeds, which thej^ speedily devoured with apparent relish. One day, 



[11 after a storm, I noticed a song sparrow searching and picking amid 



: the black debris of vegetable matter left in the road by the water. I 



,| examined the debris and found in it several seeds of last season's 



, , ' lamb's-quarters. 



Chipping sparrows hunt industriously through the same roadside 

 vegetation, and some that were collected were found to have eaten 

 weevils, grasshoppers, leaf-beetles, knotweed, oxalis, and chickweed. 

 One bird that I watched with a telescope picked off some of the hun- 

 dreds of midges resting upon a knotweed plant, and subsequently 

 1 1 plucked caterpillars, leaf -hoppers, and ants from other i3lants. 



1 1 CJhipping sparrows, unlike song sparrows, are given to foraging out 



ji in plowed fields — a habit which increases their usefulness on the 



|il farm. Four of these birds were collected on May 29 (189G) from the 



II middle of a field newlj^ ploAved for tobacco. They had eaten largely 



llll of timothy seeds, and less freely of weevils, click-beetles, and two 



lji kinds of leaf-beetles {Odontota dorsalis and Chcetocnema denticulcda). 



''i Two j^ears later this field was in hay, and although grasshopper 



I sparrows bred in the high standing grass, chipping sparrows were 



iti, jiot seen there until the crop Avas harvested, when they spent much 



'' ' time hunting in the stubble. On one August da}^ three chipping 



sparrows were noticed well out in the stubble, darting up into the air 

 and catching Avinged ants {Solenopsis rnolesta), \A^hich floated OA-er the 

 field by millions. These insects have stings, spines, and formic acid, 

 three of the deA^ces supposed to repel birds ; yet the three chipping 

 sparrows secured 21 ants in 20 minutes, and several English sparroAvs 

 and a score of bank swalloAvs Avere also observed greedily devouring 

 them. Some song sparrows came up from the beach and ran a little 

 Avay into the hay stubble; and although they were not actnallj^ seen 

 feeding on the ants, it seems probable that they also availed them- 

 selves of this abundant and easil}^ accessible food supply. 



In the pear orchard a score of chipping sparrows were observed dur- 

 ing the last week of August (1898) destroAang the seeds of an abun- 

 dant growth of crab-grass that was choking the truck crops among 

 the pear trees. The}^ Avere also eating the seeds of climbing bind- 

 weed, spotted spurge, purslane, and oxalis. The exact method of 

 procuring the crab-grass seeds, still in the milk, Avas as follows: 

 The birds hopped up to fruiting stalks and, beginning at the tip 

 of one of the spikes, bit and chewed the seeds, gradually moAing 

 their beaks along to the base. On finishing -one spike they imme- 

 diately commenced upon another. Usually they did not remove their 

 beaks until the base Avas reached, though some, especially birds of 



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