ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
541 
Without reviewing the flood of literature that has appeared during the past 
ten or fifteen years I’elating to the usefulness of this species, it will be sufficient 
to say that I believe it to be a lard for which we have no present need, and that 
it is positively in the way of a score of more useful species. The bird has very 
few of tliose qualifications, indeed, which are combined in good insect destroy¬ 
ers, while it has many traits that are positively vicious. One Chipping Sparrow 
is worth two score of these imported gamins. 
105. Passerella iliaca (Merr.), Sw. FOX-COLORED SPARROW. 
Group I. Class a. 
This elegant species is not a very common migrant. It passes us in the fall 
between the last of September and the first of November. During this time it 
frequents old “ clearings,” hazel and briar patches, and the rank weeds that 
grow along neglected fences. It is terrestrial in its habits, and obtains much of 
its food by scratching upon the ground among fallen leaves. One of these birds 
which was taken in a liazel thicket adjoining a wheat field in October, had its 
stomach distended with chinch-bugs. These pests had doubtless crawled in 
among the fallen leaves to hibernate; and the fact shows that a bird which 
never visits cultivated fields, and which is only a migi’ant, may nevertheless be 
directly beneficial to agricultural interests. It shows, also, that such birds 
should be protected, if i^ossible, in their building haunts and in their southern 
homes. 
Food: Three out of four specimens examined had in their stomachs nothing 
but small seeds of various kinds; the other had in its stomach more than fifty 
chinch-bugs. 
Grass seeds and eggs of insects (Wilson). Seeds and insects (De Kay). Seeds 
and insects (Samuels). Hymenoptera, long-horn beetles, hemiptera and spiders 
(Forbes). 
106. Spiza Americana (Gm.), Bp. BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. 
Group I. Class a. 
It has been my experience to find this an uncommon bird in Wisconsin. It is, 
at least, rare in places where it might be expected to occur in abundance. It 
has been taken in the spring at Whitewater and I have seen it in May at Berlin. 
It breeds at Racine; and in Northeastern Illinois it is said to be common in 
some places and abundant in others. It is terrestrial in its habits and frequents 
orchards and cultivated fields, nesting in both situations. It is apparently a bird 
which we could wish to have much more abundant. 
Food: Caterpillars, beetles, . canker-worms and other destructive insects 
(De Kay). 
Prof. Forbes, in his report on “Birds and Canker-worms,” says of this spe¬ 
cies: “This was the most common bird in the orchard, and it was undoubtedly 
destroying great numbers of the worms. Again and again they were observed 
busily searching the leaves and apparently taking every worm as they went. 
. . . Eleven specimens were obtained, eight of which had eaten canker- 
worms, which made about half of the food of the whole number. Other meas¬ 
uring worms were five per cent., cut-worms seventeen per cent., coleoptera nine 
per cent, (about one-third of them Carabidae), and snails seven per cent. A wild 
bee, an ant or two, a few scavenger beetles, curculios and seeds of pigeon-grass 
were also found.” 
