90 THE RELATIOI^T OF SPARROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 



robin is of the Xew England lawn, or the mocking bird of the Florida 

 l^lantation. The song consists of a series of nionotonons insect noteSy 

 repeated insistently from early morn till late afternoon, resembling: 

 somewhat the heat-suggestive tones of the grasshopx^er. The nest is 

 placed on the ground like those of many of the sparrows, but the 

 eggs are wholh' unlike most sparrow eggs; they are pale blue, and 

 might easily be mistaken for those of the bluebird. 



In food habits the dickcissel is iDarticularly interesting. One hun- 

 dred and fiftj^-two stomachs have been examined, collected, however, 

 onl}^ during the somewhat limited period from Ma}' to August. The 

 winter food is, therefore, not shown by these examinations, but Nelir- 

 ling states that during that season tlie bird feeds on grass seed and 

 weed seed.^ Most of the stomachs examined in the laborator}^ were 

 collected in Kansas, but some came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and 

 Texas. They contained animal matter to the extent of 70 percent 

 (insects, Avitli a few spiders) and vegetable matter to the extent of 30 

 percent, practically all seeds. The vegetable part of the food is 

 probably not as creditable as it would have been had the stomachs 

 been collected from more widely separated localities. Most of them 

 were obtained by one collector in a certain part of Kansas Avhere 

 there were large millet fields, and naturally the birds helped them- 

 selves plentifully to this abundant supph" of food. In the stomachs 

 collected during August, more than a tenth of the food was millet. 

 In sections where millet is not grown, however, or where it is sown and 

 coY^ered well, the dickcissel might prove very valuable in feeding on 

 the seeds of pigeon-grass; for in the stomachs examined, the seeds 

 of millet, pigeon-grass, and closely related species formed almost 

 the whole vegetable food. Some species of panicum were slightly 

 represented. 



The dickcissel, like most other fringilline birds, eats grain, but its 

 offenses in this way are trifling; 3 j)ercent of the food contained in 

 the stomachs collected in Juh^ was composed of oats, but this was 

 the onl}^ grain (except millet) found in any of the stomachs examined. 

 The autumn and winter fare is probably comi)Osed chiefly of such 

 grass and weed seeds as are usually eaten by sparrows. 



But it is the insect food that is of especial interest. This consti- 

 tutes 68 percent of the diet from May to August, and is made up as 

 follows: Dii3tera and Hemiptera, 1 percent; Hymenoptera, 2 percent; 

 Lepidoptera, 8 percent; Coleoptera, 15 percent; and Orthoptera, 41 

 percent. The Hymenoptera are almost entirely useful species; ants 

 were found in 3 of the 152 stomachs examined, a small quantity 

 compared with the great numbers eaten b}' some of the sparrows, 

 notably the white-crowned, the white-throated, and the savanna. 

 The Diptera are all obscure forms, except some robber-flies that 

 one bird had fed on. The Hemiptera include true bugs of both 



Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, Vol. II, p. 331, 1896. 



