SONCi SPARROW. 85 



for cutworms, which, if allowed to live and mature, would undoubt- 

 edl}' do much damage. Several song sparrows Avere collected in New 

 York State during an invasion of arm}' worms in 1896, and it was 

 found that they had preyed on these pests to a ver}^ considerable 

 extent. Cankerworms and the larv?e of the gipsy moth and the 

 brown-tail moth enter into the food, according to the observations of 

 Mr. E. H. Forbush.^ 



Orthoptera form only 7 percent of the annual food, but amount 

 to 2S percent of the food for August. The short-horned grasshop- 

 pers eaten are chiefly the same kinds as those selected by other birds, 

 that is, they comprise the various abundant species of the genus 

 Melanoplus, such as the red-legged locust and the Rockj^ Mountain 

 locust. Long-horned grasshoppers of the genera Orchelimum, Scud- 

 cleria, and Xipliidium, which habitually infest moist meadows, are 

 freely eaten. Crickets are, apparently, much relished. A number of 

 stomachs contained several, and in one were found no less than 10. 



Beetles seem to be eaten during everj^ month in the year, but 

 become most conspicuous in the stomachs in late spring and early 

 summer. They are chiefl}^ ground-beetles, leaf -beetles, click-beetles, 

 weevils (Rhynchophora), and members of the families Histeridse and 

 Scarabseid?e ; but a few long-horned beetles, tiger-beetles, and members 

 of the families Lampyridse and Mordelidse are also taken. Ground- 

 beetles constitute but 1 percent of the food, and the species that 

 make up this insignificant percentage are the smaller, less useful 

 forms, such as Agonoderus, Platynus, Bemhidium, Crcdacanthus, 

 Anisodactylus, Amara, Pterostichus, and the smaller species of Har- 

 palus. As sparrows are ground feeders, it would seem natural 

 that more of the valuable ground-beetles would be destroyed by 

 them than by birds that are more arboreal in their habits; but 

 as a matter of fact they consume fewer than most of our common 

 birds; and the larger, more useful species, which work the greatest 

 destruction among insect pests, and which are eaten freel}^ by many 

 of the common birds of the farm, sparrows do not molest.^ In July, 

 5 percent of the food of the song sparrow is composed of leaf -beetles, 

 princix^alh' small species of the genera Colaspis, Crepidodera, Clice- 

 tocnema, Hcenionia, Odontota, Systena, and to some extent Epitrix; 

 and for the year as a whole these amount to 1 percent of the diet. 

 Click-beetles and Histerid?e seem to be eaten only to a very slight 

 extent, but weevils form the most important element of the beetle 

 food, as they do in the case of most sparrows, amounting to 4 per- 

 cent of the total food, and in June attaining a maximum of 11 per- 

 cent. It seems strange that the bird should be apparently so little 



'Mass. Crop Kept., Bull. 3, pp. 33-35, July, 1900. 



■^Such effective carabids as Carabus, Scarites, Pasimachuf^, Cijchrus, Chlcenius, 

 and Calosoma, which are otten found in the stomachs of larger birds, have never 

 been met with in the stomachs of sparrows. 



