SPARROWS EN THE FIELD. 31 
usually amid the broom sedge and briers of the upland, and at no 
great distance from cover. Some dwell along the draining ditch 
previously referred to. The favorite resort, however, seems to be a 
small' clay knoll overrun with dewberries and hemmed in by trees on 
a part of the bluff 200 yards from the nearest buildings. At the edge 
of the bluff they are sometimes mingled with song sparrows that come 
up from the beach. Chipping sparrows are never found with them 
at this point. Several pairs of grasshopper sparrows have their 
homes in the hayfield, which extends back from the bluff, and one or 
two pairs build in an adjoining briery old cornfield. All of them 
prefer dry, grassy fields devoid of the cover which many other birds 
find essential. Xo song or chipping sparrows enter very far into the 
timothy, and field sparrows that occasionally venture in a little way 
keep near the ditch. English sparrows breed in the gutters of the 
house, in an abandoned dovecote, and in holes of trees standing in 
the dooryard. They feed wherever grain is obtainable. 
This rough description of the habitats of the several kinds of spar- 
rows will make clearer a more detailed consideration of the summer 
food habits. 
Song sparrows during the breeding season run along the sand}* and 
pebbly beach of the Potomac and investigate the aquatic vegetation 
east up by the water and the logs and other debris left by the tide. 
Here they secure certain kinds of ground-beetles which live at the 
water's edge, running spiders of such species as are plentiful on the 
Orach, aquatic snails, dragon-flies, and May-flies, as well as their 
favorite food, the seeds of the various polygonums, which generally 
grow in moist places. In the gully above the farmhouse they obtain 
blackberries, wild cherries, and mulberries. So far as my rather 
limited observations go, this fruit is picked up from the ground — a 
method that if habitual justifies a higher economic rating of song 
sparrows; for during berry time about 10 percent of the food of 
song sparrows is furnished by cultivated patches of blackberries and 
raspberries, and if the fruit thus destroyed is entirely or chiefly that 
lying on the ground little damage is done to the crop. 
The song sparrows which breed in the catbriers of the gully beside 
the house and the honeysuckle-draped shrubbery of the almost per- 
pendicular face of the bluff in front of the house make frequent 
journeys to the dooryard and vegetable garden. One pair of song 
sparrows built in a bush in the center of the garden, and were con- 
stantly seen in company with chipping sparrows, hopping about on 
the ground among the beans and cabbages. Song sparrows fed also 
along the road on the brink of the bluff. In the weedy growth of the 
roadside which was a few inches high and consisted of cropped grass, 
a little clover, and many such weeds as chickweed, knotweed, lamb's- 
quarters. oxalis, sheep sorrel and rib-grass, they picked up weevils 
and other beetles, and caterpillars, besides some of the lamb's-quar- 
