36 THE RELATION OV SPABBOWti T<> Ai.KK TLTURE. 
osage-orange hedge ii is doubtful if most of the species would have 
been found al all in the largest fields <>!' the farm. The juncos and 
field sparrows showed somewhat less of this dependence, the latter 
being sometimes observed feeding 50 to 75 yards from cover; and the 
few savanna sparrows observed, as is usual with thai species, ranged 
freely over the broadest fields. The reason for the rule of keeping 
close to shrubbery of some kind became evident one morning, when 
a Hock of 30 sparrows thai was feeding a Tew paces from the cover of 
the brink of ihe bluff suddenly rose and scurried to the bushes just 
in time to escape a sharp-shinned hawk, which had noiselessly 
SWOOped down on them. They were so often menaced by this enemy 
and the closely allied Cooper's hawk that they did not dare to seek 
their food far from protecting vegetation. 
The dilVerent species of sparrows appeared to mix indiscriminately, 
but close inspection disclosed flocks within (locks. The song sparrows 
and white-throated sparrows mingled freely, but the juncos and l lie 
fox sparrows, and to a lesser degree ihe field and tree sparrows, were 1 
generally grouped separately. These flocks, however, often fed in 
company with Ihe other kinds. 
'Idie ranges of the different species on ihe farm were therefore, not 
so distinct as they were in Ihe case of breeding birds; but certain 
preferences in the selection of feeding grounds were shown by the 
various species. A score of field sparrows with decidedly clannish 
instincts were always to be found upon Ihe high (day knoll whichhad 
formed a uesting site for this species, and there was a smaller flock 
along the ditch in which field sparrows had also bred during- the 
summer. Tree sparrows habitually resorted to t h is same ditch at a 
point somewhal nearer its outlet. The land occupied by these two 
species was poor and supported a rank growth of broom sedge. White- 
throated sparrows and song sparrows, although found to some extent 
along the ditch, usually frequented the tangled underbrush of the 
narrow Strip of trees fringing the bluff. Juncos often associated with 
these two species, and at times flew over and 1\h\ in company with 
one or the other of the two flocks of field sparrows. They exhibited 
a peculiar habit of using a big cedar tree in the middle of an old 
cornfield, just as the other sparrows resorted to a hedgerow for pro- 
tection. Vesper sparrows were observed destroying many weed seeds 
in t he open fields. 
Thus field sparrows occupied t heir summer quarters, and t ree spar- 
rows chose similar locations, and showed a resemblance to field Spar- 
rows in their liking for broom-sedge fields; Song sparrows inhabited 
much ihe same places as in summer; juncos habitually (r(\ far afield, 
while, strange to say, white-1 hroaled sparrows, the summer associates 
of the juncos in ihe New England mountain clearings, were found in 
a different habitat and in company with another species, ihe song 
sparrows. 
