SONG SPARROW. 85 
for cutworms, which, if allowed to live and mature, would undoubt- 
edly do much damage. Several song sparrows were collected in Xew 
York State during an invasion of army worms in 1896. and it was 
found that they had preyed on these pests to a very considerable 
extent. Cankerworms and the larvae of the gipsy moth and the 
brown -tail moth enter into the food, according to the observations of 
Mr. E. H. Forbush. 1 
Orthoptera form only 7 percent of the annual food, but amount 
to 28 percent of the food for August. The short-horned grasshop- 
pers eaten are chiefly the same kinds as those selected by other birds, 
that is, they comprise the various abundant species of the genus 
Mdcmophis, such as the red-legged locust and the Rocky Mountain 
locust. Long-horned grasshoppers of the genera Orchelimum, Scud- 
dsria, and Xiphidium, which habitually infest moist meadows, are 
freely eaten. Crickets are, apparently, much relished. A number of 
stomachs contained several, and in one were found no less than 10. 
Beetles seem to be eaten during every month in the year, but 
become most conspicuous in the stomachs in late spring and early 
summer. They are chiefly ground-beetles, leaf-beetles, click-beetles, 
weevils (Rhynchophora), and members of the families Histerida? and 
Scarab^eida^; but a few long-horned beetles, tiger-beetles, and members 
of the families Lampyrida? and Mordelida? are also taken. Ground- 
beetles constitute but 1 percent of the food, and the species that 
make up this insignificant percentage are the smaller, less useful 
forms, such as Agonoderus, Platynus, Be rubidium, Crdtacanthus, 
Anisodactylus, Amara, Pterostichus, and the smaller species of Har- 
palus. As sparrows are ground feeders, it would seem natural 
that more of the valuable ground-beetles would be destroyed by 
them than by birds that are more arboreal in their habits; but 
as a matter of fact they consume fewer than most of our common 
birds; and the larger, more useful species, which work the greatest 
destruction among insect pests, and which are eaten freely by many 
of the common birds of the farm, sparrows do not molest. 2 In July, 
5 percent of the food of the song sparrow is composed of leaf-beetles, 
principally small species of the genera CoJaspis, Crepidodera, Chce- 
tocnema, Hmmonia, Odontota. Systena, and to some extent Epitrix; 
and for the year as a whole these amount to 1 percent of the diet. 
Click-beetles and Histerida? seem to be eaten only to a very slight 
extent, but weevils form the most important element of the beetle 
food, as they do in the case of most sparrows, amounting to 4 per- 
cent of the total food, and in June attaining a maximum of 11 per- 
cent. It seems strange that the bird should be apparently so little 
'Mass. Crop Rept., Bull. 3, pp. 33-35, July, 1900. 
-Such effective carabids as Carabus. Scarites, Pasimachu*. C/jchrus, Chlcenins, 
and Calosoma, which are o ten found in the stomachs of larger birds, have never 
been met with in the stomachs of sparrows. 
