SPARROWS IN CAPTIVITY. 49 
he had secured all the uncovered seeds, he scratched in the sand for 
Tlie buried ones. When thus engaged he would give a quick jump 
into the air. swinging his feet forward and then backward, scratching 
the ground with both feet at once, and apparently with motionless 
wings. 
During January and February, 1900, a series of experiments was 
carried out to ascertain how far sparrows are responsible for the 
dissemination of the seeds upon which they subsist. The only birds 
available for these experiments were seven English sparrows, but the 
conclusions reached are. in a measure, applicable to all sparrows. 
The birds were fed seeds of different weeds, and all their droppings 
were examined to ascertain the condition in which the seeds were 
voided, fhe seeds of climbing false buckwheat and ragweed were 
found to be thoroughly pulverized, although quite a number of small 
fragments of the black, shiny seed coats of the former were found in 
the droppings. This result was expected, since the birds crack these 
seeds before swallowing them. The seeds of lamb's-quarters and 
amaranth were next tried. These, because of their small size and 
hard structure, it was supposed would be swallowed whole and would 
partially escape destruction in their passage through the birds* digest- 
ive tracts. But such proved not to be the case. The birds cracked 
them as they had the others. Halves of seed shells were found in the 
seed cup, and many broken smaller pieces; and the droppings of the 
birds showed .no whole seeds, although some few empty split seeds 
with the two half shells clinging together were found. Usually only 
the finely pulverized dust of the seed coats was found in the faeces. 
When the sparrows were not under experimentation they were fed 
chiefly on millet, the grain of which is inclosed by two corrugated 
siliceous glumes. These were similarly removed by the birds. No 
whole seeds were found in the dung, and only an occasional small 
piece of one of the glumes. The closely related seeds of pigeon-grass 
(Clt<i focloo rii-tclis) are inclosed by much stronger glumes, but when 
these were fed to the birds the cracking of the grain and the remov- 
ing of the glumes appeared to be just as complete as in the cae 
the millet, and seemed as certainly to preclude any possibility of sub- 
sequent germination. 
Some experiments were made with the seeds of crab-grass (Pant- 
en,// sanguinale). A well-known firm of seedsmen suggested to the 
Department the probability that the English sparrow was respon- 
sible for the occurrence of crab-grass in lawns and golf links sown 
with pure seed of the finest brand. Much complaint was received 
from buyers of lawn-grass seed because, after the seed was planted 
and t he turf well established, crab-grass appeared in it, often so thickly 
as to necessitate plowing under the whole lawn, two sparrows were 
fed with 100 of the seeds. Instead of manipulating them as they did 
the seeds of millet and pigeon-grass they swallowed them whole, 
