Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer 
9 
device. It is said that clilt and burn swallows may be induced to build their 
nests in a particular locality, otherwise suitable, by providing a quantity of 
mud to be used by them as mortar. Barn swallows may also be encouraged by 
cutting a small bole in tbe gable of tbe barn, while martins and white-bellied 
swallow's will be grateful for boxes like those for tbe bluebird, but placed in a 
higher situation. 
TOWHEE 
The towhee, cliewink, or ground robin 24 (fig. 8), as it is variously known, 
inhabits nearly tbe whole of tbe United States east of tbe Great Plains. It 
breeds from tbe Middle States northward and winters in the southern half of 
the country. Naturally associated with the catbird and brown thrasher, it 
lives in much the same places, though it is more given to haunting hedgerows 
along roads and fences. After snow has disappeared in early spring an investi¬ 
gation of the rustling so often 
heard among the leaves near a 
fence or in a thicket will fre¬ 
quently disclose a towhee hard at 
w T ork scratching for bis dinner 
after the manner of a hen; and 
in these places and along the sunny 
border of woods old leaves wall be 
found overturned where the bird 
lias been searching for hibernating 
beetles and larvEe. The good which 
the towhee does in this w 7 ay can 
hardly be overestimated, since the 
death of a single insect at this 
time, before it has had an opportu¬ 
nity to deposit its eggs, is equiva¬ 
lent to the destruction of a host 
later in the year. The towhee has also been credited w r ith visiting potato 
fields and feeding upon the potato beetle. Its vegetable food consists 
of seeds and small wdld fruits, but no complaint on this score is knowm 
to have been made. So for as observation goes, the bird never touches either 
cultivated fruit or grain; in fact, it is too shy and retiring even to stay about 
gardens for any length of time. 
Fig. 8.—Towhee. Length, about 8 inches. 
THE SPARROWS 25 
Sparrows are not obtrusive birds, either in plumage, song, or action. There 
are some 40 species, with nearly as many subspecies, in North America. Not 
more than half a dozen forms are generally known in any one locality. All the 
species are more or less migratory, but so wddely are they distributed that there 
is probably no part of the country w'here some can not be found throughout the 
year. 
While sparrows are noted seed eaters, they do not by any means confine 
themselves to a vegetable diet. During the summer, and especially in the 
breeding season, they eat many insects and feed their young largely upon the 
same food. Examination of stomachs of three species—the song sparrow 726 
(fig. 9), chipping sparrow, 27 and field sparrow 28 (fig. 10)—shows that about one 
third of the food consists of insects, comprising many injurious beetles, as 
snout beetles or weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grasshoppers are eaten. In 
the case of the chipping sparrow these insects form one-eighth of the food. 
Grasshoppers would seem to be rather large morsels, but the bird probably 
confines itself to the smaller species; indeed, the greatest amount (over 36 per 
cent) is eaten in June, when the larger species are still young and the smaller 
24 Pipilo erythrophthalmus. 
26 The sparrows here mentioned are all native species. A full account of the English, 
or house, sparrow {Passer domesticus), including its introduction, habits, and depreda¬ 
tions, was published in Bull. No. 1 of the Division of Ornithology in 1889. For infor¬ 
mation in regard to combating the English sparrow, see U. S. Department of Agriculture 
Leaflet 61, English Sparrow Control. 
26 Melospiza melodia. 
27 Spi&ella passerine. 
28 gpizella pus ilia. 
