WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 69 
more corn than wheat and oats and is chiefly waste kernels: 9 per- 
cent of grass seed, mainly pigeon-grass, crab-grass, June grass, pas- 
palum, and Johnson grass: 6 percent of the seeds of amaranth, lamb's- 
quarters, wild sunflower, and gromwell. and ±2 percent of ragweed 
and polygonum. These figures indicate that it is advisable to afford 
this species all possible encouragement and protection. 
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. 
{Zonotrichia leucophrys, Zonotrichia L gambeli. and Zonotrichia J. riuttatti.) 
There are three subspecies, or geographic races, of white-crowned 
sparrows. The first that was described, Zonotrichia leucophrys, is 
a bird of the Hudsonian life zone, breeding in the very high moun- 
tains of the western United States and eastward to Labrador and the 
Hudson Bay region. In winter it is found throughout the United 
States and as far south as the valley of Mexico. The second subspe- 
cies. Gambol's sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambeli), is not found 
east of the Great Plains, and breeds to the north of the United States. 
The third subspecies, Xuttall's sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys nut- 
taUi), is confined to the Pacific coast region, and occurs from British 
Columbia to Lowe 1 * California. 
Two hundred and seventeen stomachs of these three subspecies, col- 
lected during every month of the year except August, have been exam- 
ined. One-fourth of the food contained in these stomachs was found 
to consist of animal matter, and three-fourths of vegetable matter. 
The animal portion resembles that of other sparrows in character, but 
differs somewhat in the proportions of the various constituents. Cat- 
erpillars form 9 percent of the total food, or more than one-third of the 
animal food, which is in excess of the usual proportion of these pests 
found in sparrow stomachs. Ants and rjarasitic wasps amount to 6 
percent of the total food, also an unusually large proportion. The 
percentage of beetles (5 percent) is, on the contrary, rather below the 
average: and that of grasshoppers (1 percent) is remarkably small. 
The remaining 4 percent of the animal food is composed of spiders. 
bugs, and miscellaneous insects in the usual proportions. 
The vegetable part of the food consists of 51 percent of weed seed, 
15 percent of grain, 4 percent of grass seed, and 5 percent of fruit. 
The amount of grass seed consumed is noticeably smaller, while the 
fruit element is noticeably larger than is common in sparrow food. 
This fruit-eating proclivity and apparent lack of appetite for grass 
seed and grasshoppers characterizes the food habits of all the spar- 
rows of the genus Zonotrichia. 
Owing to marked differences of food habits among these three sub- 
species of white-crowned sparrows, it is desirable to consider eacli 
separately, though the limited material, especially in the ease of gam- 
beli, renders cautious conclusions necessary. 
