SPARROW- IX THK MB 
the y ild seize a spike by the middle, munch the seeds a few 
and then pass to the next. Pigeon-grass was treated in lite 
manner. Th of these fcw< _ e more commonly eaten 
arrows later in the season after they have dropped to the ground, 
or thirty chipping sparrows were observed on June 16 
- > about a field of ripening wheat that lay back from the river. 
Some of them had doubtless bred near the field, but some had come 
from the buildings along the river front. They often flew out into 
the wheat — 100 yards from the fence — to a luxuriant growth of rag- 
weed, and destroyed many beetles (Systena Wanda)* pests that proved 
very injurious during the next season. I field sparrows were 
noted, but these did not accompany the chipping sparrows into 
the wheat field. -d chiefly among the weeds and briers of an 
adjoining old cornfield. 
A sparrows showed no striking differences from chipping spar- 
in diet, for, although the nesting sites of the two species were 
Quite distinct, the feeding ranges constantly overlapped. One pair 
with recently fledged young, however, occupied a weedy old tobacco 
I >ed among the woods, hundreds of yards from the nearest point at 
which chipping sparrows occurred. Here the old birds were eating 
crab-_ nd feeding their young on caterpillars and grasshoppers. 
On one day early in September a flock of 15 field sparrows was 
moving from point to point beside an osage-orange hedge 
that extended back from the river several hundred yards. The birds 
feeding on crab-grass that grew along the hedge, but every now 
and then one would spring up into the air and seize a braconid 
inobracon), numbers of which continually flew about amid the 
herbage of the field. Braconids, often erroneously called ichneumon 
are of much value earlier in t: .n owing to their attacks 
on caterpillars. 
Field and chipping sparrows sometimes feed together near water 
courses. In such case I always found song sparrows feeding with 
them. During August (1893) the three - were frequently 
together in a tobacco field beside the negro cabin. This field was so 
infested with tobacco worms that the crop for that year had already 
dned a loss of 50 percent; but none of the sparrows appeared to 
molest the worms, which perhaps were larger than they could con- 
veniently handle, but fed chiefly on such insects as sf on the 
Is of the tobacco field. As th>— be it times forsake the 
Is and attack crops, their destruction is of more benefit than 
inju: Id spar: re found feeding in the cornfields from 
ime the corn tasseled until it was harvested. They were also 
partial to briery old cornfields, where they were often associated with 
- --hopper sparrows. Chipping sparrows fed in cornfields, old or 
growing, only when they were near buildings, and song sparrows 
:ered them except in the vicinity of a water course. 
