Of all the sparrow groups, there is probably no member, unless it be
the exotic form known as the English sparrow,[33] that has by reason
of Its food habits called down so many maledictions upon Its head as
the house finch,[34] red head, or linnet, as it is variously called.
This bird, like the other members of its family, is by nature a seed
eater, and before the beginning of fruit raising in California probably
subsisted upon the seeds of weeds, with an occasional taste of some wild
berry. Now, however, when orchards have extended throughout the length
and breadth of the State and every month from May to December sees
some ripening fruit, the linnets take their share. As their number Is
legion, the sum total of the fruit that they destroy is more than the
fruit raiser can well spare. As the bird has a stout beak, it has no
difficulty in breaking the skin of the hardest fruit and feasting upon
the pulp, thereby spoiling the fruit and giving weaker-billed birds a
chance to sample and acquire a taste for what they might not otherwise
have molested. Complaints against this bird have been many and loud, more
especially in the years when fruit crops first came to be an important
factor in the prosperity of the Pacific coast. At that time the various
fruits afforded the linnets a new and easily obtained food, while
cultivation had reduced their formerly abundant supply of weed seed.
When the early fruit growers saw their expected golden harvest suddenly
snatched away or at least much reduced in value by the little marauders,
it is no wonder that they were exasperated and wished to destroy the
authors of the mischief.
[33] _Passer domesticus_.
[34] _Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis_.
In order to test the matter thoroughly and ascertain whether these birds
ate any other kind of food that might to some extent offset the damage
inflicted upon the fruit, the horticulturists and ornithologists of
California were requested to secure a number of the stomachs of these
birds and send them to the Biological Survey. An agent was also sent to
the fruit-raising sections, who watched the birds in the orchards and
collected a number of them. In this way 1,206 stomachs were obtained
and carefully examined, and the result shows that animal food (insects)
constituted 2.44 per cent and vegetable food 97.56 per cent of the
stomach contents, not counting gravel.
So small a proportion of animal food can not, of course, mean a great
destruction of insects. As these stomachs were collected in every month,
with the greater number taken during the summer, it is evident that
whatever good one may expect from the linnet must not be looked for
in this direction. Unlike most of the sparrow family, the linnet does
not feed its young upon Insects to any great extent. The contents of
the stomachs of a number of nestlings were carefully examined, and the
only animal food was found to consist of wooly plant lice. These also
constituted the great bulk of the animal food eaten by adults.
The vegetable food of the species consists of three principal
items--grain, fruit, and weed seeds. Grain amounts to less than 1½
per cent in August, which is the month of greatest consumption, and the
average for the year is a trifle more than one-fourth of 1 per cent.
Fruit attains its maximum in September, when it amounts to 27 per cent
of the whole food, but the average for the year is only 10 per cent. The
seeds of weeds constitute the bulk of the diet of the linnet, and in
August, the month of least consumption, amount to about 64 per cent of
the food. The average for the year is 86 per cent.
From the foregoing it is evident that whatever the linnet's sins may
be, grain eating is not one of them. In view of the great complaint
made against its fruit-eating habits, the small quantity found in the
stomachs taken is somewhat of a surprise. But it must be remembered that
the stomach contents do not tell the whole story. When a bird takes a
single peck from a cherry or an apricot, it spoils the whole fruit, and
in this way may ruin half a dozen in taking a single meal. It is safe to
say that the fruit pulp found In the stomach does not represent more than
one-fifth of what is actually destroyed. That the linnets are persistent
and voracious eaters of early fruits, especially cherries and apricots,
every fruit raiser hi California will bear testimony. That the damage
is often serious no one will deny. It is noticeable, however, that the
earliest varieties are the ones most affected; also, that in large
orchards the damage is not perceptible, while in small plantations the
whole crop is frequently destroyed.