. Alabama bird day book . injuriousbeetles, as snout beetles or weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grass-hoppers are eaten. In case of the chipping sparrow, these insects form one-eighthof 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 thelarger species are still young and the smaller most numerous. Be-sides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and bugs are a whole, the insect diet of the native sparrows may be consideredbeneficial. There a
. Alabama bird day book . injuriousbeetles, as snout beetles or weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grass-hoppers are eaten. In case of the chipping sparrow, these insects form one-eighthof 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 thelarger species are still young and the smaller most numerous. Be-sides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and bugs are a whole, the insect diet of the native sparrows may be consideredbeneficial. There are several records of potato bug larvae eaten bychipping sparrows. Their vegetable food is limited almost exclusively to hard might seem to indicate that the birds feed to some extent upongrain, but the stomachs examined show only one kind, oats, and butlittle of that. The great bulk of the food is made up of grass andweed seed, which form almost the entire diet during winter, and theamount consumed is Alabama, igi8. 15 In the agricultural regions of the upper Mississippi valley byroadsides, on borders of cultivated fields, or in abandoned fields,wherever they can obtain a foothold, masses of rank weeds springup and often form almost impenetrable thickets which afford foodand shelter for immense numbers of birds and enable them to with-stand great cold. A person visiting one of these weed patches on asunny morning in January, when the thermometer is 20 degrees ormore below zero, will be struck with the life and animation of thebusy little inhabitants. Instead of sitting forlorn and half frozen,they may be seen flitting from branch to branch, twittering and flut-tering, and showing every evidence of enjoyment and perfect com-fort. If one of them is captured it will be found in excellent con-dition; in fact, a veritable ball of fat. The snowbird and tree sparrow are perhaps the most numerousof all the winter sparrows. Examination of many stomachs showsthat in
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