FEEDING HABITS OF THE CHIPPING SPARROW 
IO9 
6 -.57 — Food brought in at north side; excrement carried away. 
7:10 — Food brought in at north side. 
7 : i6 — Food brought in at north side. The sky is clouded, and the 
atmosphere is now becoming dark. 
7 ; 27 Both parents returned; one came through east side, and the 
other through the north side. One had a large caterpillai, 
and the other apparently also had one. Both led and ilew 
away at once. 
7 .36— One bird came in at north side; fed and flew away at once. 
7 -.40 — Now quite dark. One bird flew in, probably the female, got 
on the nest a moment and then got oft and wandered 
round the tree a minute. Then at 7 150 it settled down on 
the nest. The young birds poked their heads up lor two 
or three minutes, but the old bird remained quiet, and the 
young soon withdrew their heads. 1 his was the end of the 
day’s work for the busy parents. 
The reason that the side of the tree through which the birds enteied 
was recorded was that it was believed that one of the parents always 
came through the north side, and the other the east side. But the 
difference in the sexes is so slight that it was impracticable to be cer- 
tain of the facts of the case. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
During this busy day the parent birds had made almost two 
hundred visits to the nest, bringing food nearly every time, 
though some of the trips seemed to be made to furnish giit 
for the grinding of the food. There was no long inteival 
when they were not at work, the longest period between visits 
having been twenty-seven minutes. Soft-bodied cateipillais 
were the most abundant elements oi the food, but ciickets and 
crane-flies (Fig. 1) were also seen, and doubtless a great variety 
of insects was taken. The precise determination of the most of 
the food brought was, of course, impossible, the obseivations 
having been undertaken especially to learn the legulaiity of 
the feeding habits of the adult birds. That they were busy 
from daylight to dark with no long intermission at any time is 
shown by the record, and the observation is submitted as a 
contribution to our knowledge of a subject in which much 
guessing has been done on account of the lack of definite 
information. 
The chipping sparrow is one of the most abundant and 
familiar of our birds. It seeks its nesting site in the vicinity of 
