SOME OHIO BIRDS 
33 
identify it in the field. The song- is a simple strain of unusual 
pathos, and it is because of the bird’s habit of singing at sundown 
that it has been named Vesper Sparrow. 
The vegetable diet of this species is made up entirely of seeds, 
the greater proportion of which are from noxious weeds that infest 
cultivated land. A little grass seed and grain compose the remainder 
of the vegetable food. The grain is largely oats, much of which is 
gleaned from horse droppings, and from oat fields after the crop has 
been harvested. Insect food is taken in excess of vegetable matter 
during summer and amounts to 90 percent of the entire food at the 
height of the breeding season. Beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, 
hairless caterpillars, bugs and ants are the forms most frequently 
eaten. In June, 20 percent of its food is weevils, and about 10 per¬ 
cent click beetles. Predaceous beetles comprise only 2 percent of 
the year’s food. This species is of great service to the farmer, 
feeding as it does among his crops and doing no appreciable harm. 
SLATE-COLORED JUNCO, Junco hyemalis (Linn.) 
This familiar bird of winter is best known as Snowbird (of the 
East), although it arrives in the fall, long before snow falls, and lin¬ 
gers until late April. It is found in weedy fields, or at the edge of 
woodlands, and frequents the home 
grounds in the rural districts or 
town suburbs when the snow lies 
deep. These birds are sometimes 
seen in company with the House 
Sparrows, especially about dwell¬ 
ings, but they are readily disting¬ 
uishable from the latter. The 
slaty-gray of the upper parts, 
throat and breast, contrasts sharp¬ 
ly with the white belly. The bill 
is flesh-colored, and the outer tail 
feathers are white, showing con¬ 
spicuously in flight. The cheery 8 * Foo( * °f the Junco. 
twitter, heard at all times, together with the plumpness of body and 
the sleek plumage, suggest prosperity. Only nine percent of their 
food for winter is animal, the remainder being largely the seeds of 
noxious weeds. The comparative size of the segments in the 
accompanying circle graphically illustrate the relative proportions 
of various foodstuffs consumed. 
SCNG SPARROW, Melospiza melodia melodia (Wilson) 
This is another of our ground-inhabiting birds, of general 
distribution over the entire state, abundant in summer, but much 
