14 Bird Day Book 



THE SPARROW 



Sparrow^ the gun is levell'd, quit that wall. 

 — Without the will of heaven I cannot fall. 



THERE are some forty species of sparrows in North America 

 which are helpful rather than harmful and should be encour- 

 aged rather than discouraged; at least, this is the opinion of the 

 United States department of agriculture's investigator. While the 

 English sparrow is noisy and obtrusive, the American species are 

 unobtrusive both in song and action. 



These native sparrows, although so seldom noticed by the 

 majority of people, may probably be found in nearly every part of 

 our country, although not more than a half dozen forms are gen- 

 erally known in any one locality. While American sparrows are 

 noted seed eaters, they do not by any means confine themselves to a 

 vegetable diet. During the summer, and especially in the breeding 

 season, they eat many insects and feed their young largely upon the 

 same food. Examination of stomachs of three species — the song 

 sparrow, chipping sparrow, and field sparrow shows that about one- 

 third of the food consists of insects, comprising many injurious 

 beetles, as snout beetles or weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grass- 

 hoppers are eaten. 



In case of the chipping sparrow, these insects form one-eighth 

 of the food. Grasshoppers would seem to be rather large morsels, 

 but the bird probably confines itself to the smaller species ; indeed, 

 the greatest amount (over 36 per cent) is eaten in June, when the 

 larger species are still young and the smaller most numerous. Be- 

 sides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and bugs are taken. 

 As a whole, the insect diet of the native sparrows may be considered 

 beneficial. There are several records of potato bug larvae eaten by 

 chipping sparrows. 



Their vegetable food is limited almost exclusively to hard seeds. 

 This might seem to indicate that the birds feed to some extent upon 

 grain, but the stomachs examined show only one kind, oats, and but 

 little of that. The great bulk of the food is made up of grass and 

 weed seed, which form almost the entire diet during winter, and the 

 amount consumed is immense. 



