EASTERN MEADOWLARK 75 



It is of passing interest to note that eggs of the bob-white quail and 

 bobolink have been found in the nests of meadowlarks, although these 

 instances are not to be classed as parasitism but merely unusual 

 accidents. J. B. Lackey (1913) reports finding eggs of the bob-white 

 in two meadowlark's nests near Clinton, Miss., and Edward R. Ford 

 of Chicago found a meadowlark's nest with four eggs of the meadow- 

 lark, one of the cowbird, and one egg of the bobolink. 



G. B. Saunders (MS., see p. 56) in an examination of 45 adult 

 meadowlarks found 8 contained internal parasites. The tapeworm 

 Anonchotaenia sp. was found in 3 and the parasite Mediorhynchus 

 grandis in 6 birds. The roundworm Diplotriaenoides sp. was found 

 in both Oklahoma and New York birds. Of 5 young in a nest at 

 Ithaca, N. Y., 3 were found to have dipterous larvae, probably of the 

 genus Chrysomyia, in their nasal passages. The meadowlark like 

 most other birds is host to a number of external parasites including 

 lice, ticks, and mites, among which Harold S. Peters (1936) has found 

 the three lice Degeeriella picturala (Osborn), Menacanthus chrysopha- 

 eum (Kellogg) and Philopterus subflavescens (Geof.), the three ticks 

 Haemaphysalis leporis-palustris Packard, Ixodes sp., and Amblyomma 

 tuberculatum Marx; and the mite Trombicula hominis Ewing. Occa- 

 sionally nests of the meadowlark are heavily infested with mites, 

 and G. B. Saunders cites one case where a nest was deserted because 

 of an unusually heavy infestation. 



Because the eastern meadowlark has two broods of four or five 

 young during each season, we need not be alarmed at the large number 

 of enemies and of its great mortality. Man, directly or indirectly, 

 is responsible for the loss of a great many meadowlarks and probably 

 he is the most important factor in the control of the species and thus 

 preventing overpopulation. Perhaps the most disastrous but un- 

 witting acts of man is the mowing of alfalfa, clover, and timothy fields 

 in which the meadowlarks nest. In Illinois, while traversing the 

 various sections of the State on foot for hundreds of miles in con- 

 nection with the statistical bird survey in 1906-1908, the loss I noted 

 from this source was appalling. In June and July I saw nest after 

 nest that had been destroyed by mowing machines and it is probably 

 safe to state that more meadowlarks are destroyed by this means, 

 which is repeated year after year, than by any other. 



In autumn, when meadowlarks congregated in large flocks in south- 

 ern Illinois, it was a common experience to see groups of a dozen or 

 more gunners out killing meadowlarks in large numbers, to be carried 

 home for food for themselves and their neighbors. Such practices 

 have been common in some of the Southern States in the past, but I 

 am convinced that in recent years there has been less of this kind of 

 destruction because of the more rigid enforcement of protective laws 



