Btf THE RELATION < >l<' SPARROWS TO AGRICULTURE. 
baffled by the wonderful protective adaptations of these beetles, many 
of which harmonize with their surroundings so completely as to be 
pracl Lcally invisible to human eyes. The particular weevils most often 
.selected include such forms as Ba/ris, Sphenophorus, Centrinus, 
Sitones, Phytonomus, and Tanyrnecus. 
The Scarabseidse eaten are for the mosl pari the smaller forms of 
dung-beetles, especially Aphodius fimetarius and Aphodius inquina- 
tus. The song sparrow does not, as a rule, attack such large forms as 
the May-beetle, but it probably feeds to some extent on medium-sized 
closely related forms, Serica vespertina and others, as it frequently 
pre} s on beet les of t his size, such as those of the genus , 1 rwmala. 
The rest of the animal food amounts to 2 percent of the total food, 
and is made up of snails, largely such aquatic species as pond snails; 
spiders, chiefly running species belonging to the family Lycosidse; and 
some few thousand-legs of the genus Jul us and closely allied forms. 
Taking the food habits of the song sparrow as a whole, it will be 
readily seen that this bird docs much more good than harm and is 
worthy of protection and encouragement. Only 2 percent of the food 
consists of useful insects, while 18 percent is composed of injurious 
insects: and grain, largely waste, amounts to only 4 percent, while 
the seeds of various species of weeds constitute 50 percent. 
LINCOLN'S SPARROW. 
(Melosjriza lincolni.) 
Lincoln's sparrow breeds in the highest parts of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the Sierra Nevada and from the northern tier of States to 
Labrador and the Mackenzie and Upper Yukon rivers In winter it 
is found throughout the southern half of the United States, but is rare 
and locally distributed in the East, To the untrained eye. it is prac- 
tically indistinguishable from its congener, the ubiquitous song spar- 
row; but it is as distrustful as the song sparrow is confiding. 
Only .'51 stomachs of this species have been examined. These were 
collected during the months of February. April, May, September, 
and October, mainly in .Massachusetts and New York. Tne food dur- 
ing these months, as indicated by the stomachs, consists of animal 
matter, 42 percent, and of vegetable matter, 58 percent. The animal 
matter is made up of 2 percent spiders and millepeds and 40 percent 
insects. Useful insects. Largely Hymenoptera, with some predaceous 
beetles form 1 percent of tin' food, and injurious insects, 12 percent. 
Neutral insects, including beetles, ants, (lies, and some bugs, amount 
to a fourt h of t he food. .More ants (principally MyrmieidsB) and fewer 
grasshoppers are destroyed than by the song sparrow: The vegetable 
matter is divided as follows: Grain, 2 percent; seeds of ragweed and 
various species of Polygonum, L3 percent ; grass seed, -2~ percent, and 
miscellaneous seeds, principally weeds, L6 percent. 
