CHIPPING SPARROW. 77 



seen it preying on the army worm;^ Dr. Weed, quoting Miss Sonle, 

 states that it attacks the moths of the forest tent caterpillar, ^ an 

 insect which has recent!}' serioush' damaged the maple-sugar industry 

 in Xew England; and man}" observers have stated that it feeds on 

 cankerworms and cabbage worms. I have never seen chipping spar- 

 rows feeding on cabbage worms, although I have frequently' watched 

 tliem hopping about among or near cabbages which were badly 

 infested with worms. 



Mr. Henr}' W. Olds states that a chipping sparrow visited his pea 

 patch and busily fed on the pea lice which were seriously injuring the 

 vines. I have found chipping sparrows at Marshall Hall, Md., feed- 

 ing on the same insect. This pest {Nectaropliora destructor) is com- 

 parativeh' new to science, having been first described in 1899, but 

 during that year it caused a loss to the pea crop of Maryland of 

 8300,000.3 



Audubon states that the chipping sparrow takes berries,^ and Mr. 

 Perc}' Moore, of Philadelphia, reports that it feeds on wild cherries. 

 Prof. F. E. L. Beal says that he has occasionallj^ seen it taking a few 

 cultivated cherries. Mr. F. C. Kirkwood calls attention to a very 

 peculiar habit it has of sipping the sap of grapevines. ° 



Two hundred and fiifty stomachs have been examined, collected 

 from March to November, and throughout the country both in the 

 East and West, principally, however, from Xew England to Virginia 

 and from the States of Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and California, the 

 greater part of the western chipping sparrows coming from the last- 

 named State. More collections were made in summer and early 

 autumn than at an}' other season. Of the contents of these stomachs 

 the total animal food, consisting of insects with an occasional spider, 

 amounts to 38 percent; the vegetable food to 62 percent. Of the 

 vegetable food, 4 percent is grain, principally oats; 48 percent grass 

 seed; and 10 percent other seeds, such as clover, ragweed, amaranth, 

 wood sorrel, lamb's-quarters, purslane, chickweed, knotweed, and 

 black bindweed. Twenty-six percent of the grass seed is crab-grass 

 and pigeon-grass, chiefly the former, the rest consisting of timothy, 

 orchard grass, and other grasses. The seeds of crab-grass, whenever 

 they can be obtained, foi-m the most important part of the diet. Dur- 

 ing the last of August there were collected a dozen chipping sparrows 

 that were feeding in a flock amid some crab-grass and other weeds 

 which were getting the upper hand in a small garden, about an acre 

 in extent, and it was found that the stomach of every one of the birds 



' Penn.^gr. Rept. 1896. 



'^ Bull. No. 75. N. H. Coll. Agr. Expt. Sta.. p. 121, 1900. 



^ Proc. Eleventh Ann. Meeting- Assn. Economic Entomologists, pp. 94-99, 1899. 



^ Birds of America, Vol. Ill, p. SO, 1841. 



'" Birds of Maryland, p. 335, 1895. 



3507— No. 15—01 6 



