Common Birds on the Farm. 277 



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, Febi-uary, :\Iarch 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. — Orthoptcra. Fire-fly family. 



Lady birds, 

 Red-legged grasshoppers, g^^^.^.^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 



Meadow grasshoppers, Leaf-eating beetle. 



Other grasshoppers, ^1^^ beetle, 



^"'^■'^^^^- Darkling beetle, 



Rove beetle. 

 No. 2.-Coleoptera. Longcorn beetle. 



Weevil, Tiger beetle, 



Billbug, May beetle, 



Curculio, Ground beetle. 



Clover weevil. Click beetle. 



No. 3. — Lepidoptera. _, No. 5. — Hymenoptera 



Butterflies, Ants, 



Moths, Wasps, 



Cutworm, Stinging ants. 



Army worm. Ichneumon flies. 



No. 4. — Hemiptera. No. 6. — Miscellaneous Animal Food. 



Stilt bug. Ticks, 



Soldier bug. Snails, 



Assassin bug. Thousand-legs, 



Chinch-bug, Small batrachians, 



Spittle insects, Sawbugs, 



Tree hoppers. Spiders and cocoons. 

 Jumping plant-lice, 



It is rather a remarkable fact that the Lark, being a ground-feeding 

 bird, should destroy so few beneficial insects. This may possibly be ex- 

 plained by the fact that many of the useful kinds have a disgusting 

 odor. The one fact alone that the bird eats chinch-bugs is enough to 

 make us his friend forever, for we cannot lose sight of the fact that this 

 troublesome bug in the United States during the past half century has 

 destroyed grain to the estimated value of over $330,000,000. Of late it 

 has also been discovered that the Lark is a wonderful enemy of the boll 

 weevil. Professor Beal of AVashington, D. C, estimates that in the great 

 hay-producing sections of the country this bird annually saves two and 

 one-half tons of hay in each township as a result of destroying grass- 

 hoppers. 



But the story of the good which the Aleadow Lark does is not yet all 

 told. We noticed that it eats weed seeds. Here are some of the seeds 

 found in the stomachs of those 238 specimen birds : 



Pigeon grass, Gromwell seed, 



Panic grass, , Black mustard, 



Smart weed, Bay berry. 



Rag weed. 



