ENGLISH SPAEROW. 93 



Ontario. Throughout its range it abounds chiefly in towns and vil- 

 lages, along roads, and about farms, and is not found in mountainous 

 or forested districts. 



The relation of the bird to man was investigated by the Department 

 of Agriculture, and the results were published in 1889.^ This inves- 

 tigation, which included extended field observation and the examina- 

 tion of more than 600 stomachs, showed the species to be a serious 

 pest. Since the appearance of this publication 132 additional stom- 

 achs have been examined, and a special study has been made of the 

 food of the young. For the latter purpose 50 birds from 3 days to 3 

 weeks old were collected during the last of June and the first of July, 

 1899, from a farming region in Virginia opposite Washington, D. C. 



The 82 stomachs of adults were collected throughout the year in 

 rural localities in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 Indiana, and Kansas. Animal matter, practically all insects, consti- 

 tuted 2 percent of the food, and vegetable matter, almost entirely 

 seeds, 98 percent. Insects were taken chiefly during May and June, 

 when they composed 10 and 8 percent respectively of the month's 

 food. Of the 98 percent constituting the vegetable food, 7 percent 

 consisted of grass seed, largely of plants of the genera Zizania (wild 

 rice), Panicum, and ChcEtocloa, and notably crab-grass and pigeon- 

 grass, and 17 percent of various weeds not belonging to the grass 

 family. The grass and weed seeds taken are not noticeably different 

 from those usually eaten by native sparrows. But what especially 

 differentiates the vegetable food from that of all other sparrows is the 

 large proportion of grain consumed, which formed 74 per cent of the 

 entire food of the year and 90 percent of that of the period from June 

 to August. 



The examination of the contents of the stomachs of the 50 nestlings 

 made an unfavorable showing for the species. It was found that 

 instead of being exclusively insectivorous, like the young of all the 

 native sparrows so far as known, the young English sparrows had 

 taken 35 percent vegetable food, 2 percent being weed seed and 33 

 percent grain. The animal food was made up entirely of insects, 

 and these were chiefl}^ injurious. One percent of the food consisted 

 of bugs, 3 percent of ants and other Hymenoptera, 4 percent of Lepi- 

 doptera, 8 percent of beetles, and 49 percent of grasshoppers. Three- 

 fourths of the beetl-es were weevils, and practically all the grasshop- 

 pers were the short-horned (Acrididse), the greater part of which 

 belonged to the species Melanoplus ailantis and Melanopl us femur - 

 rubrum. The destruction of these harmful insects is, of course, a 

 service to agriculture ; but it must be remembered that all the food of 

 the nestlings of other sparrows consists of insects just as injurious, 

 while one-third of the food of English sparrows is composed of grain. 



As an insect destroyer the English sparrow does its best service bj^ 



' The English Sparrow in North America, Bull. 1, Div. Ornithology and Mam- 

 malogy, lb89. 



