ENGLISH SPARROW. 93 
Ontario. Throughout its range it abounds chiefly in towns and vil- 
lages, along roads, and about farms, and is not found in mountainous 
or forested districts. 
The relation of the bird to man was investigated by the Department 
of Agriculture, and the results were published in 1889. l This inves- 
tigation, which included extended field observation and the examina- 
tion of more than 600 stomachs, showed the species to be a serious 
pest. Since the appearance of this publication 132 additional stom- 
achs have been examined, and a special study has been made of the 
food of the young. For the latter purpose 50 birds from 3 days to 3 
weeks old were collected during the last of June and the first of July, 
1899, from a farming region in Virginia opposite Washington, D. C. 
The 82 stomachs of adults were collected throughout the year in 
rural localities in Maryland, Michigan, Xew York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, and Kansas. Animal matter, practically all insects, consti- 
tuted 2 percent of the food, and vegetable matter, almost entirely 
seeds, 98 percent. Insects were taken chiefly during May and June, 
when they composed 10 and 8 percent respectively of the month's 
food. Of the 98 percent constituting the vegetable food, 7 percent 
consisted of grass seed, largely of plants of the genera Zizania (wild 
rice), Panicum, and Ch(Btocloa, and notably crab-grass and pigeon- 
grass, and 17 percent of various weeds not belonging to the grass 
family. The grass and weed seeds taken are not noticeably different 
from those usually eaten by native sparrows. But what especially 
differentiates the vegetable food from that of all other sparrows is the 
large proportion of grain consumed, which formed 74 per cent of the 
entire food of the year and 90 percent of that of the period from June 
to August. 
The examination of the contents of the stomachs of the 50 nestlings 
made an unfavorable showing for the species. It was found that 
instead of being exclusively insectivorous, like the young of all the 
native sparrows so far as known, the young English sparrows had 
taken 35 percent vegetable food, 2 percent being weed seed and 33 
percent grain. The animal food was made up entirely of insects, 
and these were chiefly injurious. One percent of the food consisted 
of bugs, 3 percent of ants and other Hymenoptera, 4 percent of Lepi- 
doptera. 8 percent of beetles, and 49 percent of grasshoppers. Three- 
fourths of the beetles were weevils, and practically all the grasshop- 
pers were the short-horned (Acrididae), the greater part of which 
belonged to the species Melanoplus atlaniis and Mdanoplus femur- 
rubrum. The destruction of these harmful insects is, of course, a 
service to agriculture; but it must be remembered that all the food of 
the nestlings of other sparrows consists of insects just as injurious, 
while one-third of the food of English sparrows is composed of grain. 
As an insect destroyer the English sparrow does its best service by 
J The English Sparrow in North America, Bull. 1. Div. Ornithology and Mam- 
malogy, 18b9, 
