64 THE RELATION OF SPARROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 



Tex. , contained a spider, fragments of grass, and seeds of plants of the 

 composite family. 



Because of its small numbers and irregular, local distribution, this 

 sparrow is of little economic importance. 



SHARP-TAILED SPARROW. 



(Ammodramus caudacutus, A. nelsoni, and A. n. subvirgatus.) 



The sharp-tailed sparrow is so called from the fact that its tail 

 feathers end in drawn-out points. With the exception of one species, 

 Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow, this is a bird of the Atlantic coast, 

 breeding from Nova Scotia to Marjdand and possibly to Virginia, and 

 ranging southward in winter as far as the Gulf of Mexico. Nelson's 

 sparrow {Ani'modraTnus nelsoni) breeds in the fresh-water marshes of 

 Illinois, Dakota, and Manitoba, but migrates in Avinter to the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts. 



Fifty-one stomachs of this sparrow, collected from May to October, 

 that have been examined, contained 81 percent of animal matter and 

 19 percent of vegetable matter, chiefly grass seed. The animal food 

 is distributed as follows: Hymenoptera, 3 percent; Coleoptera, 6 per- 

 cent; Orthoptera, 7 percent; Lepidoptera, 14 percent; Hemiptera, 12 

 percent; Diptera, 5 percent; miscellaneous insects, 8 percent; and 

 Amphipoda (sand fleas), Arachnida (spiders), and Mollusca (snails), 

 26 percent. The Hymenoptera were ants and Ichneumonid?e. The 

 beetles Avere mainly SUones and other weevils, some small ground- 

 beetles, and occasionally a leaf -beetle, a rove-beetle, a tiger-beetle, 

 or a dung-beetle. The Orthoptera were for the most part short-horned 

 grasshoppers (Acrididse), but some long-horned grasshoppers and 

 crickets were taken. Sixteen of the birds had eaten Lepidoptera, a 

 large number in view of the fact that all the birds examined were 

 adults. One-third of the Lepidoptera were eaten as imagos, and 

 these were practically^ all noctuid moths. These insects were so com- 

 minuted in the stomach contents that they could be recognized as 

 moths onty by pieces of their slender coiled probosces, or through a 

 microscopic examination of the pulverized remains, which disclosed 

 the characteristic toothed scales that make the down on their wings. 



The food habits of the sharp-tailed sparrow have many striking 

 peculiarities. The bird shows a greater liking than most species 

 for bugs; and half of those eaten belong to the hombpterous division 

 and are for the most part leaf -hoppers (Jassidse). These insects 

 are, it is true, wonderfully abundant in the moist, grassy places 

 where this sparrow lives, but they are not often eaten by other birds 

 that inhabit the same kinds of places. Of the true bugs — that is, 

 those belonging to the heteropterous division — both the smaller plant- 

 feeding and the predaceous species are eaten. Perhaps the most 



