76 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



aDd the general education of the public to the economic value of this 

 bird. 



Automobiles, which constitute a menace to certain of our birds, are 

 not such a menace to the meadowlark; however, when the birds fre- 

 quent dirt roads in autumn to dust their plumage and possibly to pick 

 up stray bits of food, such as grasshoppers, a considerable number have 

 been reported killed. 



Since the meadowlark nests on the ground, predatory mammals and 

 birds and probably snakes are responsible for a number of deaths. 

 The domestic cat ranks high as a destroyer of meadowlarks, especially 

 those that nest in fields adjacent to farm homes. Farm dogs, which 

 also roam the fields and which are able to locate the nesting birds 

 through the sense of smell, probably destroy a number of nests. 

 Saunders (MS., see p. 56) states that he has seen Bonaparte's weasel 

 attack juvenile meadowlarks. 



The examination of the stomach contents of owls and hawks has 

 revealed that the horned and snowy owls, the goshawk, duck hawk, 

 sparrow hawk, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, and Cooper's 

 hawk have taken meadowlarks, chiefly during the winter months. 



Since the meadowlark is one of the earliest spring migrants, snow- 

 storms frequently cut off its food supply and, the accompanying cold, 

 cause the death of many of the birds. Frederick C. Lincoln (1939) 

 states that during the early part of June 1927 a hailstorm of exceptional 

 violence in and around Denver, Colo., killed a large number of meadow- 

 larks and other birds. The ground was strewn with dead birds and 

 many lay dead in their nests where they were incubating eggs or brood- 

 ing young when the storm broke. 



Fall and winter. — In fall the meadowlarks leave their nesting 

 grounds in Quebec and Ontario during September and October, and 

 by the middle of October the bulk of them have departed. A few 

 individuals may linger on until well into November. Since the 

 meadowlark normally winters in northern United States, the time of 

 departure of migrants is difficult to ascertain. 



In southern Illinois during the month of October I have seen 

 immense flocks made up of hundreds of individuals concentrated ho 

 the lowlands above Cairo, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio 

 Rivers. These flocks were made up largely of birds that had migrated 

 from points farther north. Also, in going through cornfields and stub- 

 blelands of this part of the State, I frequently saw smaller companies 

 of them waddling about the clustered stalks. As they paused to in- 

 spect me they would hold their bodies in a vertical position with their 

 bills pointed skyward. At the same time they would flick their tails 

 displaying the conspicuous white markings as they opened and closed 

 the fan of feathers. 



