366 
White- throated Sparrow 
General 
Diet 
note, consisting- of a sing-le twit, repeated in smart succession by the 
whole group, and continuing until the first hooting of some owl frightens 
them into silence. Yet, often during fine nights I have heard the little : 
creatures emit here and there a twit, as if to assure each other that all’s 
well.” 
The food-supply of' some birds consists entirely of one special kind 
of article. For example, we can hardly imagine a Cormorant, Pelican, 
Osprey or Kingfisher engaged in consuming any food other than fish. 
Swallows and Swifts eat insects that they capture while in full flight. 
To secure such a diet it is therefore necessary for them to travel long 
distances twice a year to reach lands where the insect- 
life they desire may be obtained. With Sparrows, 
however, we find that quite a different condition 
exists. They are not fitted for capturing fish, as does the Pelican or the 
Osprey, but they do eat almost any kind of food that is available. 
In the fall of the year White-throated Sparrows consume many 
berries, which they* pick off the vines and berry-producing trees. They 
collect also the seeds of those berries that, dried or decayed, fall to the 
ground. Not long ago I watched for a time a flock of fourteen of these 
Sparrows feeding on the red berries of a little tree growing in a park. 
I have not been able to learn the name of the tree, but the berries it 
produces are evidently very choice from the stand- 
point of the birds. Some" of the Sparrows were 
busily employed in picking off and eating the fruit. 
Others, perhaps early comers, were already satisfied, and in a 
bunchy, ruffled-up kind of attitude, sat very still and appeared to take 
no note of the sound of the banquet going on all about them. It was 
only when a vagrant cat appeared on the hillside near by that these 
drowsy fellows exhibited signs of returning animation. 
In collecting weed-seeds the birds hop about among the vines or tall 
weeds and carefully search through the debris on the ground. When the 
earth is strewn with fallen leaves, and these are dry, the rattling, rustling 
noise of a flock of feeding Whitethroats may lead one to think a Grouse 
family is advancing along the ground. Whitethroats fly up and alight 
on the sides of ragweeds, and, hanging there, fluttering, they pick at the 
seeds that have not yet dropped. I have seen slender, brittle weed-stalks 
break off in such circumstances and down would 
^stroy come weed-stalk, birdie and all. It may readily 
® be seen that these birds are valuable to the 
farmer who spends most of his summer trying with hoe and plow to 
keep the weeds from over-running his crops. For this reason laws for 
its protection have been passed in all the States where this Sparrow is 
found. 
Among migratory birds the exclusive insect-eaters are, as a rule, 
among the first to leave their northern homes in autumn, while those 
that are more omnivorous in their feeding usually linger until the winter 
Fond of 
Berries 
