SPARROWS IN CAPTIVITY. 45 



among their pickings in such a way as to prevent germination, and 

 the examination of their droppings furnished good evidence that they 

 do not, as a rule, disperse weeds by such means. 



The feeding habits of several abundant and important species of 

 sparrows that have not come under direct observation may be briefly 

 considered in comparison with those of the species found on the three 

 farms visited. The lark sparrow and dickcissel resemble the grass- 

 hopper sparrow and vesper sparrow both in their large consumption 

 of insect pests and in the fact that their feeding ranges comprise open 

 areas of cultivated land. The dickcissel, more than the lark sparrow, 

 is a bird of the vast open, treeless tracts, and in the fertile agricul- 

 tural districts of this character in the central part of the United States 

 appears to be more valuable, both as an insect consumer and as a 

 weed destroj^er, than species that stay close to cover. Prof. F. E. L. 

 Beal has observed a flock of snowflakes picking the akenes from rag- 

 weed plants at a time when the ground was covered with snow. He 

 also has seen them standing in the snow and stretching on tiptoe for 

 the seeds in spikes of pigeon-grass. The Lapland longspur sometimes 

 feeds out in ploughed land in company with shore larks. It feeds 

 mainly from the ground, rarely, if ever, from the stalk, as the snow- 

 flake often does. The wide-ranging habits of all these birds increase 

 their value and make them at least the equals in effectiveness of 

 other sparrows that destroy a greater ]3ercentage of weed seed but are 

 curtailed in their usefulness by the fact that their feeding ranges 

 are limited to the immediate vicinit}^ of protecting bushes. 



SPARROWS IN CAPTIVITY. 



During the spring of 1898 a series of feeding experiments was car- 

 ried out with a song sparrow, a junco, and a white-throated sparrow. 

 The birds were kept supplied with canary seed and offered different 

 kinds of insects in order to ascertain their likes and dislikes and, if 

 possible, correlate the results with those derived from the examination 

 of the contents of stomachs. May-beetles ( Chalepus) were frequently 

 offered, but were refused in every case save one. In this exceptional 

 instance the sparrows were very hungry , and the song sparrow attacked 

 the hard-shelled insect and after pecking at it for ten minutes succeeded 

 in breaking it open so that the soft parts could be easily obtained. 

 Then all three sparrows fought for a share of these tidbits. The diffi- 

 culty of manipulating May-beetles, which form an important part of 

 the insect food of such large birds as blackbirds and crows, seems to 

 explain their absence from the contents of the thousands of sparrow 

 stomachs examined in these investigations. 



A number of the experiments were designed to test the efficacy of 

 protective coloration of insects against the attacks of birds. Several 

 admirably protected grasshoppers {Eucoptoloplnis sordidus), which 

 were found with the greatest difficulty on fallen oj^k leaves, were 



3507— No. 15—01 4 



