WINTER MEETING. 171 



subdue the liveliest of its kind, pulling out its legs one by one, then 

 the wings, removing the tobacco spit, and after breaking the bones 

 she gulped down the whole body. The hairriest caterpillar was not 

 too hairy for her. She worked it and rolled it on the ground until all 

 hairs were gone; then she moved it through the bill from one end to 

 the other to get rid of unsavory contents before swallowing it. 



Unlike most other insect-eating birds, which can only be with us 

 for four or five months of the year, the meadow lark is, fortunately,, 

 not entirely dependent on insect food ; in its absence she can sustain 

 life on vegetable food, such as weed seeds, and I know of one which 

 devoured a whole nest full of young mice, exposed by the removal of a 

 cornshock from the field in mid-winter. 



While most people are only too ready to accuse birds of wrong- 

 doings, no one has ever found fault with the meadow lark. She will 

 eat a few scattered seeds of grain, if pressed by hunger, but at the 

 time of the sprouting corn there is too much insect food to be had to 

 believe that she does any appreciable harm. Hard food is always re- 

 jected. The one I kept refused corn ; did not know what to do with 

 it ; but she partook of all sorts of soft food, from beefsteak to mashed 

 potatoes ; in fact, she ate nearly of everything we had on the table. 

 In the absence of sufficient insect food she got every day her regular 

 fare of scraped or finely cut raw beef, a dish of which she never tired. 



But the meadow lark is not only beneficial through the destruction 

 of noxious insects, it is also a very sweet songster, and our fields look 

 twice as promising and the sunshine twice as bright upon them, when 

 her familiar notes float through the air. And how she cheers the weary 

 plowman after a long and hard day's labor ! 



In our State two kinds of meadow larks are at home. The ranges 

 of the eastern and western meadow lark meet here, and the latter is 

 even a still better songster than the former ; its song is more melodious 

 and comparable to that of the woodthrush. That such a bird, an 

 insect-eating singing bird, is considered a game bird and killed by hun- 

 dreds and thousands every year is really shameful! Oar farmers and 

 horticulturists should take up the fight for its protection immediately, 

 and should not cease until a fine of twenty-five dollars is put on every 

 meadow lark killed on Missouri ground. The shooting of innocent 

 and useful birds has gone on too long already, and should be stopped 

 by all means. 



The city folks won't do it; the country population must do it. It 

 is in their interest ; they need the birds to help them keep down the 

 insect pests, and they want them to cheer the lonely fields and silent 

 woods. 



