The Bulletin. 



15 



have been found to be filled largely with insects which have been 

 procured about manure piles, the edges of straw stacks and similarly 

 exposed places. Two hundred and thirty-eight Meadow Lark stom- 

 achs were examined by the United States Biological Survey. They 

 had been killed in various localities and at all seasons of the year. The 

 object of the experiment was to determine as accurately as possible 

 the facts regarding the bird's food. The results were carefully 

 tabulated and the following interesting results were obtained : 



Months. 



January — 

 February -- 



March 



April 



May 



June 



July 



August 



September 

 October — 

 November 

 December - 

 Year 



Stomachs 

 Examined. 



13 



1 



12 

 28 



8 

 20 

 18 

 28 

 29 

 40 

 22 

 19 

 238 



Animal 

 Food. 



24.36 

 .00 

 73.14 

 77.51 

 97.99 

 95.79 

 97.32 

 99.35 

 99.20 

 94.39 

 77.08 

 39.22 

 72.95 



Grain. 



75.28 



25.00 



17.00 



15.10 



1.88 



2.10 



.00 



.00 



.40 



.61 



6.50 



32.70 



14.71 



Weed Seeds. 



.36 



75.00 



9.86 



7.39 



.13 



2.11 



2.68 



.65 



.40 



5.00 



16.42 



28.08 



12.34 



Total. 



100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 

 100 



The above shows that nearly three-fourths of the Meadow Lark's 

 food for the year consists of insects, about 12 per cent of weed seeds, 

 and 15 per cent is grain. The record of grain may raise a question 

 as to the bird's possible injury to crops. A glance at the table, how- 

 ever, shows that almost the entire amount of grain was eaten during 

 the months of December, January, February, March, and April, 

 and was apparently largely gleaned from the stubble fields. The 

 following is a list of the insects identified from these stomachs : 



No. 1. — Ortltoptera. 



Red-legged grasshoppers. 

 Meadow grasshoppers, 



Other grasshoppers. 

 Crickets. 



No. -. -Coleoptera. 



Weevil. 

 Billtrag, 

 Curculio, 

 Clover weevil, 



Fire-fly family, 

 Lady birds, 

 Scarred snout beetle. 

 Leaf-eating beetle, 

 Flea beetle, 

 Darkling beetle. 

 Rove beetle, 

 Longcorn beetle. 

 Tiger beetle. 

 May beetle, 

 Ground beetle, 

 Click beetle. 



