The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-10-22
The American Sparrow
Forty Native Species In North Amer
lea, Although Less obtrusive Than
the imported Variety.


species of sparrows in North America
which are helpful rather than harmful
and should be encouraged rather than
discouraged; at least, this is the opin-
ion of the United States Department Of
Agricnlture's Investigator whose.
Some Common Birds Useful to the
Farmer has just been issued as
Farmers Bulletin No. $50.
While The English sparrow is noisy
and obtrusive, the American species
Aare un%obtrusiYe both in song and ac-
tion. These native sparrows, although
so seldom noticed by the majority Of.
people, may probably be found in
nearly every part Of our country, al
though not more than a half dozen
forms are generally known in any
one locality.
The American varieties resemble.
the English sparrow In general, al
though a few are more brilliant. A
California species has a red head, as
have several species In our east which
are not so common. The snow bird
is a sparrow which is particularly
common in winter. It is slate color
with q white breast.
While American 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 sason, they eat many in
sects and feed their young largely up
on the ame Examination of stomachs
of three species-the song sparrow,
chipping sparrow and field sparrow
shows that about one-third ofsthe food
consists of insects, comprising many
injurious beetles, as snout beetles or
weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grass
hoppers 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 great
est amount lover SO per cent? ia eaten
In June, when the larger species are
still young and the smaller most num-
erous. Besides the insects already
mentioned, many wasps and bugs are
taken. AS a whole the insect diet of
the native sparrows may be considered
beneficial. There are several records
of potato-bug larvae eaten by clipping
sparrows.
Their vegetable food is limited al
most exclusively to hard seeds. This
might seem to indicate hat the birds
feed to some extent upon grain, but
the stcmachs examined show only one
kind, oats, and but little of that. The
great bulk of the food is made UP Of
grass and weed seed, which form al
most the entire diet during the winter
and the amount consumed is immense.
In the agricultural region of the up
per Mississippi Valley by roadsides on
borders of cultivated fields, or in aban-
doned fields, wherever they can obtain
a foothold, masses of rank weeds
spring up and often almost impenetr-
able thickets which afford food and
shelter for immense numbers of birds
and enable them to Withstand great
cold and the mos: terrible billiards..
A person visiting one of these weed
patches on q sunny morning in Janu-
airy, when the thermometer is 90 dc.
grees or more below zero, win be
struck with the life and animation Of
the busy little inhabitants. Instead CT
sitting forlorn and half frozen they
may be seen fitting from branch to
branch, twittering and fluttering, and
showing every evidence of enjoyment
and perfect comfort. If one of them
is captured 1t will be found in excel
tent condition; in fact, a veritable ball
Of fat.
The snowbird and tree sparrow are
perhaps the most numerous Of all the
American sparrows. Examination of
many somachs shows that In winter
the tree sparrow feeds entirely upon
seeds of weeds. Probably each bird
consumes about one-fourth Of an ounce
a day.
The writer of the new bulletin has
estimated the amount of weed seed
annually destroyed by these birds in
Iowa. On the basis of one-fourth of
an ounce of seed eaten daily by each
bird, and an average Of ten birds to
each square mile, remaining in their
winter range 200 days, there would be
a total of 1.750, 900 pounds, or 875 tons
of weed seed consumed in a single sea-
son by this n species. Large as are
these figures, they unquestionably fall
far short Of the reality.
Tne estimate of 10 birds to a square
mile is very conservative, for in Massa-
ehusetts where the food supply is less
than in the western states, the tree
sparrow is ever more abundant than
this in winter. In Iowa several thous-
and tree sparrows have. been seen
within the space Of a few acres. This
estimate, moreover, is for a single
species, while, as a matter Of fact,
there are at least a half dozen birds
(not all sparrows) that habitually feed
during winter on these seeds.
Farther south the tree sparrow is
replaced In winter by the white-throat-
ed sparrow, the white-crowned spar
row, the fox sparrow, the song spar
L. GnII norr1r onH cauawol