VESPEB SPARKow. 57 
Dung-beetles, weevils, click-beetles, ground-beetles, and leaf-beetles 
seem to be preferred to other kinds. The little dung-beetles of the 
genera Aphodius and AUznius, which are extremely abundant in the 
pastures where the vesper sparrow nests, form 4 percent of the year's 
rood. As they are practically neutral, however, in their effect upon 
agriculture, their destruction is of little interest. The destruction of 
weevils is more serviceable, for these include many of our worst pests. 
Weevils of the genus Sitones and several other members of the family 
Curculionida? are sinall. hard insects, apparently as inedible as gravel, 
but they seem to be relished, as they form 4 percent of the year's food, 
and in June amount to 20 percent of the food for that month. Click- 
beetles, which are also x^ests. are taken to about half this extent. 
Useful predaceous beetles amount to 2 percent of the year's food. 
Remains of ground-beetles and their larva* were found in four of the 
130 stomachs examined. In one of these was also found a tiger-beetle, 
a most active flying insect that seldom falls prey to birds. The remain- 
ing 1 percent of the coleopterous food consists of small dark or green 
leaf-beetles of practically no economic importance, which seem to be 
eaten most freely in midsummer. 
From June to September grasshoppers and other Orthoptera pre- 
dominate over all other forms of insect food. Those eaten are prin- 
cipally short-horned grasshoppers of the genus Melanoplus and allied 
genera. In July, when they attain their maximum, they constitute 
41 percent of the month's food. Professor Aughey found that every 
one of five vesper sparrows he collected and examined had fed on 
these destructive insects, and that the stomachs averaged more than 
13 each. 
Cutworms, army worms, and other smooth caterpillars that infest 
upland grass lands are less prominent in the food of the vesper spar- 
row than grasshoppers and beetles, perhaps because they are less 
readily obtainable. They are eaten freely, however, and, as far as is 
shown by this investigation, form a larger proportion of the food of 
this sparrow than of that of any other, with the exception of the 
grasshopper sparrow and the dickcissel. In May they constitute 21 
percent of the food. The remainder of the animal food is unimpor- 
tant, and includes ants and other Hymenoptera, true bugs, leaf- 
hoppers, flies, spiders, snails, and according to Dr. Warren, earth- 
worms. 1 These various elements amount to about 3 percent of the 
total animal food. 
Sparrows are primarily seed-eating birds, and it is usually the vege- 
table element of their diet that is most conspicuous and most impor- 
tant. While this is also true of the vesper sparrow, yet it is true to a 
smaller degree than is common among sparrows. Its work as an insect 
destroyer is very great, measured by the sparrow standard, and becomes 
Birds of Pennsylvania, revised ed.. p. 234, 1890. 
