SNOWFLAKE. 53 
of course, have changed the character of tiie stomach contents, and 
so reduced the percentage of grain food not only for April, but for the 
season as well. A larger collection of stomachs would also, no doubt, 
have shown a smaller percentage of grain. The grain taken is for the 
most part gleanings after harvest, in the stubble-field, about build- 
ings, or along roads or car tracks, and so of little or no economic import- 
ance, the kinds most frequently secured being wheat, corn, oats, 
and millet. Some of this ma}' come from newly sown fields; but the 
amount thus taken is probably so small that such damage as results 
is little compared with the service rendered by the destruction of 
weed seed. 
From the examination of the stomachs collected, it would appear 
that the snowflake derives fully half its subsistence from two weeds — 
amaranth and ragweed, and that it does not to any great extent feed 
on the seeds of crab-grass, pigeon-grass, or other grasses, though it 
should be stated that Mcllwraith reports it as eating the seeds of 
broom sedge [Andropogon scoparivs). 1 Only 1 percent of the food 
contained in the 40 stomachs examined was grass seed. But in addi- 
tion to the fact that the number of stomachs examined was too small to 
permit final conclusions to be drawn, for other reasons this should not 
be taken as showing a distaste for grass seed. The taste for similar 
food, as shown by the partiality of the birds for grain, and the quantity 
of grass seed eaten by the closely allied, more southerly ranging long- 
spurs, indicate that the abstinence of the snowflake from this food is 
due to necessity and not choice. We must remember that the grass 
seed, which falls to the ground when ripe instead of clinging to the 
stalk, as do many of the seeds of amaranui, lamb's-quarters, and rag- 
weed, is probably buried under the snow during most of the time the 
snowflakes are here. The amaranth is tall and its seeds are par- 
ticular!}' clinging, and after very heavy snowfalls it is probably the 
most available food supply the snowflakes have. Its seeds form half 
the food found in the stomachs collected in February and March, 
some of which contained from 500 to 1,500 each. Such a wholesale 
destruction of the seeds of this rank weed as is thus indicated is not 
accomplished by any other bird whose food habits have thus far been 
investigated. With most species of seed-eating birds amaranth is by 
no means an important article of diet. 
On account of its good work as a weed destroyer and the apparent 
absence of any noticeably detrimental food habits, the snowflake 
seems to deserve high commendation, and should receive careful pro- 
tection. Feeding in latitudes that have been deserted by most other 
weed-destroying birds, these birds render a distinct and most effective 
service to the Northern farmer. And to this should be added that it 
is their habit, and that of their congeners, the longspurs, to feed far 
1 Birds of Ontario, p. 310, 1894. 
