36 THE RELATION OF SPARROWS TO AaRIOULTURE. 



osage-orarige hedge it is doubtful if most of the species would have 

 been found at all in the largest fields of the farm. The j uncos and 

 field sparrows showed somewhat , less of this dependence, the latter 

 being son^etimes observed feeding 50 to 75 yards from cover; and the 

 few savanna sparrows observed, as is usual with that species, ranged 

 freely over the broadest fields. The reason for the rule of keeping 

 close to shrubbery of sqnie kind became evident one morning, when 

 a, flock of 30 sparrows that was feeding a few paces from the cover of 



I 'the brink of tlie bluff suddenly rose and scurried to the bushes just 



in time to escape a sharp-shinned hawk, which had noiselessly 

 swooped down on them. They were so often menaced by this enemy 

 and the closely allied Cooper's hawk that they did not dare to seek 

 their food far from protecting vegetation. 



The different species of sparrows appeared to mix indiscriminately, 

 but close inspection disclosed-flocks within flocks. The song sparrows 

 and white-throated sparrows mingled freely,^ but the juncos and the 

 fox sparrows, and to a lesser degree the field and tree sparrows, were 

 generally grouped separately. These flocks, however, often fed in 

 company with the other kinds. 



The ranges of the different species on th-e farm were, therefore, not 

 so distinct as they ^yere in, the case of breeding birds; but certain 

 preferences in the selection of feeding grounds were shown by the 

 various species. A score of field sparrows with decidedly clannish 

 instincts were always to be found iipon the high clay knoll which had 

 formed a nesting site for this species, and there was a smaller flook 

 along the ditch in which field sparrows had also bred during the 

 summer. Tree sparrows habitUially resorijed to, this same ditch at a 

 point somewhat nearer itS; outlet. The land occupied by these two 

 species was poor an.d supported a rank growth of broom sedge. White- 

 throated sparrows and song sparrows, although found to some extent 

 along the ditch, usually frequented the tangled underbrush of the 

 yarrow strip of trees fringing the bluff. Juncos often associated with 

 these two species, and at times flew over and fed in company with 

 one or the other of the two flocks of field sparrows. They exhibited 

 a peculiar habit of using a big cedar tree in the middle of an old 

 cornfield, just as the other sparrows resorted to a hedgerow for pro- 

 tection. Vesper sparrows were observed destroying many weed seeds 

 in the open fields. 



Thus field sparrows occupied their summer quarters, and tree spasr- 

 rows chose similar locations, and showed a resemblance to field spar- 

 rows in their liking for broom-sedge fields; song sparrows inhabited 

 much the same places as in summer; juncos habitually fed fiar afield,, 

 while, strange to say, white-throated sparrows, the summer associates 

 ,, jljl! of the juncos in the New Englai^d mountain clearings, were found ini 



' a different habitat and in cQmpany with another species, the song, 



sparrows. 



.;.i:l 



