[23] Pipilo erythrophthalmus.
THE SPARROWS.[24]
[24] The sparrows here mentioned are all native species. A full account of the English, or house, sparrow (Passer domesticus), including its introduction, habits, and depredations, was published in Bul. No. 1 of the Division of Ornithology in 1889. For information in regard to combating the English sparrow, see Farmers’ Bulletin 493, The English Sparrow as a Pest, by Ned Dearborn, 1912.
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 widely are they distributed that there is probably no part of the country where 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[25] ([fig. 9]), chipping sparrow,[26] and field sparrow[27] ([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 most numerous. Besides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and bugs are taken. Predacious and parasitic hymenopterous insects and predacious beetles, all useful, are eaten only to a slight extent, so that as a whole the insect diet of the native sparrows may be considered beneficial. There are several records of potato-bug larvæ eaten by chipping sparrow’s.
[25] Melospiza melodia.
[26] Spizella passerina.
[27] Spizella pusilla.