62 THE RELATION OF SPARROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 



All examination has been made of 170 stomachs of this sparrow, col- 

 lected from both the East and the West and from February to October, 

 omitting March. The food for the months represented, as indicated 

 by the stomach examinations, consists of 63 percent animal matter and 

 37 percent vegetable matter. The percentage of animal matter is thus 

 even greater than in the case of the savanna sparrow. Fifty-seven 

 percent of the food is composed of insects, and 6 percent — the remain- 

 ing animal matter — consists principally of spiders, with an occasional 

 myriapod, snail, or earthworm. Tlie beneficial insects consumed, 

 comprising both larval and adult ground-beetles and parasitic Hymeii- 

 optera, amount to only 1 percent of the total food ; while the destruc- 

 tion of injurious insects is forty-five times as great, and is distributed 

 as follows: 8 percent harmful beetles, 14 percent caterpillars, and 

 23 percent grasshoppers. The beetles belong to three families: Click- 

 beetles, mostly small species; weevils [Sitones and related genera); 

 and the smaller leaf -beetles, noticeabl}^ Systena hlanda and Systena 

 elongata. Caterpillars are eaten more freely in Ma}^ than at any 

 other time, and constitute 33 i3ercent of the food of that month. 

 More than half the caterpillars destroyed are cutworms, Avhich is a 

 very large proportion, and shows an unusual liking for these destruc- 

 tive insects. In one stomach from Bourbon County, Ky. , were G cut- 

 worms {Nephelodes violans), each an inch long. The army worm seems 

 to be also a favorite article of diet. 



The grasshopper sparrow received its name because of the char- 

 acter of its song, which closely resembles the stridulation of the 

 long-horned grasshopper; but investigation of its food habits has 

 shown that, by a curious coincidence, the name is f ull}^ as appropriate 

 in consideration of its diet. Grasshoppers (Acrididse and Locustidae) 

 form almost one-fourth (23 percent) of the food of the eight months 

 in which the 170 stomachs examined were collected, and 60 percent of 

 the food of June, in which the greatest quantity of these destructive 

 insects is eaten. The genera Xiphidium, Scudderia, Hippiscus, and 

 Melanoplus are best represented. 



Among the sparrows of the farm seven are preeminently grasshop- 

 per destroyers — the dickcissel, and the grasshopper, lark, vesper, chij)- 

 ping, song, and field sparrows — and from Ma}^ to August, inclusive, the 

 insect-eating period, consume large quantities of these pests. The 

 examinations of stomachs collected during this period show that grass- 

 hoppers form 41 percent of the food of the dickcissel, 37 percent of that 

 of the grasshopper sparrow, 31 percent of that of the lark sparrow, 23 

 percent of that of the vesper sparrow, 21 percent of that of the chipping 

 sparrow, 17 percent of that of the song sparrow, and 13 percent of that 

 of the field sparrow. Among the stomachs of the dickcissel and grass- 

 hopper sparrows examined, however, were those of several nestlings, 

 14 and 13 of the two species, respectively; and as young sx^arrows are 

 reared largelj^ upon grasshoppers some allowance has to be made in 



