SPARKOWS IX THE FIELD. 37 
Some interesting notes on the feeding* habits of sparrows were 
obtained through these autumnal visits. Out in a cornfield, farther 
from cover than many of the birds would venture, a flock of juncos 
was found picking from the ground the fallen seeds of the pigeon-grass 
which had overspread the field. Beside the road along the bluff, 
where there was a fringe of Virginia wild rye {Ely mux rirginirus) and 
tall redtop (Sieglingia sesleroides)* juncos were also observed eating 
the seeds of these grasses in company with white-throated and song 
sparrows. They picked up most of the seeds from the ground, but 
took a few from the stalk. Where the seeds were covered by fallen 
leaves they scratched the leaves away, unlike crows, which use their 
large beaks in such cases. The same three species were grouped 
together in a wheat -stubble field which had grown up to ragweed, 
where they were securing the ragweed akenes that had dropped to 
the ground. These birds were watched witli a powerful field glass 
and were seen to crack the akenes, drop the dry shells, and swallow 
the meaty part, a process that clearly precluded any subsequent ger- 
mination. On the bare knoll already mentioned was a growth of red- 
sheathed rush grass (Sporobolus vaginceflorus) and poverty grass 
(Aristida), and here field and tree sparrows were scattered about the 
ground feeding on the fallen seeds of these grasses. 
One or two of the fields were overgrown with broom sedge, the seed- 
buoying plumes of which, when lighted up by the low sun, gave a 
frost-like brilliancy to the reddish straw-colored mass beneath. Field 
sparrows and tree sparrows were also found here, and as they swayed 
on the tops of the stalks, taking seed after seed, they would disengage 
the light plumes, which would float away empty. Sometimes the birds 
on alighting on the plants would bend them to the ground and would 
hold them down with their feet as they picked out the seeds, but not 
often would the} r otherwise feed from the ground. 
Out in the middles of the fields of a dozen acres or more a few 
savanna sparrows were observed, which, with ten or twelve quail and 
fifty or sixty meadowlarks, were busily reducing the weed harvest. 
Vesper sparrows were sometimes associated with them and seemed 
equally independent of shelter. Apart from these there were few 
that fed far from cover, the juncos in the cornfield and the field and 
tree sparrows in the broom-sedge growth, which sometimes were found 
50 to 75 yards afield, forming practically the only exceptions. 
The white-throated, fox, and song sparrows undoubtedly fed on 
wild fruits, but it was very difficult to observe them in the act. A 
flock composed of these species was observed in a tangle of vines that 
grew along the bluff. Several white-throated sparrows were noted 
ascending high up into a butternut tree entwined with Avoodbine and 
wild grape and feeding in company with a flock of cedar birds on the 
fruits of these two vines. Another white-throat was seen to eat a 
pokeberry, and a song sparrow a berry from a woodbine which hung 
