HENSLOW'S SPARROW. 63 
these exceptional cases. But enough is certain to show that these 
two birds and the lark sparrow are most valuable destroyers of grass- 
hoppers, while the work of the other four sparrows mentioned, though 
not so extensive, is yet of much importance. These figures give new 
meaning to the name by which the grasshopper sparrow is known. 
Eleven percent of the total food comprises such insects as ants and 
little dung-beetles (Akenius and Aphodius), and about 1 percent con- 
sists of bugs, the most common being leaf -hoppers (Jassidse), leaf 
bugs (Capsidse), assassin bugs (ReduviidaB), and the smaller soldier 
bugs, such as Hymenarcys and Trichopepla. The spiders, myriapods, 
earthworms, and snails, which constitute the remaining animal matter, 
should be classed as probably neutral. 
The vegetable food of the grasshopper sparrow is of little impor- 
tance when compared with that of other species. No fruit was found 
excepting a few blueberries in one of the stomachs, and grain, chiefly 
waste, forms only 2 percent of the food Of the seeds, wood sorrel 
(Oxalis) composes 2 percent of the food; ragweed, 5 percent; such 
grasses as pigeon-grass, panic-grass, and a few others less freely eaten, 
17 percent; and various other plants — polygonums, purslane, rib- 
grass, and the sedges — 11 percent. The entire weed-seed element, 
including the seeds of such grasses as are troublesome on the farm 
(7 percent of the total food), amounts to about one-fourth of the food. 
The grasshopper sparrow in particular and the other species of the 
genus Ammodramus in general feed much less on vegetable matter 
than most other sparrows. Insects form their staple diet, and of 
these, beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars are the most important. 
As a destroyer of insect pests the grasshopper sparrow is most effi- 
cient. It is not only superior to other members of the same genus, 
but is even more efficient than such valuable species as the lark spar- 
row, vesper sparrow, and dickcissel; and, both its vegetable and 
animal food considered, it seems to be individually the most useful 
species of bird whose food habits have thus far been investigated. 
The injurious part of the food forms only 3 percent of the whole, while 
the neutral amounts to 24 percent and the beneficial to 73 percent. 
HENSLOW'S SPARROW. 
{Ammodramus hensloivi. ) 
Henslow's sparrow is a rare and locally distributed bird of the east- 
ern half of the United States. In appearance and habits it is similar 
to the grasshopper sparrow. 
Four stomachs collected during the summer months contained 
beetles, cutworms, grasshoppers, bugs, and blackberries. The beetles 
consisted of ground-beetles (Anisodadylus), leaf-beetles, click-beetles, 
and weevils (Rhynchophora); the bugs, of soldier bugs and assassin 
bugs (Reduviidse). Three stomachs collected on January 20 at Dallas, 
