108 MEADOWLARK 



promptly turned their backs to liiin, looking back 

 at him only over their shoulders, but this bird 

 kept his back to the Hawk and stood facing the 

 man. As the collector was a naturalist^ the 

 bird's trust was not misplaced, and he lived to 

 again sing his joy to his mate. 



Incredible as it seems to the nature-lover, the 

 Meadowlark is often shot for food, although on 

 purely economic grounds, as Professor Beal per- 

 tinently remarks, it is " entitled to all possible 

 protection, and to slaughter it for game is the 

 least profitable way to utilize a valuable species." 

 It has been said that the Meadowlark eats clo- 

 ver-seed, but in looking for it in stomach contents 

 it was found in only 6 out of 238 stomachs, and 

 99 per cent, of the food at clover time was found 

 to be insects, mainly grasshopjDers, insects whose 



ravages have been no- 

 torious from the ear- 

 liest times. Professor 

 Beal says: "The num- 

 ber eaten is so enor- 

 mous as to entitle the 

 Pj^^ 4(^ Meadowlark to rank 



Grasshopper. ^^^0"^ ^^'^ ^lOSt effi- 



cient of our native 

 birds as a grasshopper destroyer." It is estimated 

 that the value of the grass crop saved by the 

 Meadowlarks on a township of thirty-six square 

 miles, each month during the grasshopper season, 



