BLACKBIRDS AND OB IDLES 



109 



is about twenty-four dollars. " Nor are the other 

 components of the insect food less important ex- 

 cept in quantity. Some of the most injurious 

 beetles form a considerable percentage of the 

 stomach contents." Among the other insects 

 eaten by the Meadowlark are May beetles, ants, 

 bugs, caterpillars, curculios, and leaf-beetles. In 

 conclusion. Professor Beal says : " Far from being 

 injurious, it is one of the most useful allies to 

 agriculture, standing almost without a peer as a 

 destroyer of noxious insects." 



With the Meadowlark we come to the last of 

 the Blackbird and Oriole family that we shall 

 take up. As a group they are strongly marked 

 birds, of striking colors, of good size — 

 when compared with the smaller Chick- 

 adees, Wrens, and Humming- 

 birds — having strong bills and 

 feet as compared with the Swal- 

 lows and Swifts. (See Figs. 47, 

 48.) Among themselves they dif- 

 fer widely. The brilliant Orioles 

 are birds of the tree- 

 tops ; the Black- 

 birds, Bobolink, and 

 Meadowlark, largely 

 birds of the ground. 

 Of the two eastern Orioles, the male Baltimore is 

 always more or less yellow and black, while the 

 adult male Orchard Oriole is chestnut and black. 



Fig. 48. 

 Strong foot of Blackbird. 



