WESTERN MEADOWLARK 89 



the average monthly consumption amounting to 27.5 percent; this 

 consisted of oats, wheat, barley, and a little corn eaten in various 

 amounts at different seasons. 



A much more elaborate report, based on the examination of nearly 

 2,000 stomachs, is made by Bryant (1914), from which only a few 

 extracts can be included here. "Stomach examination has shown that 

 sixty-three and three-tenths percent of the total volume of food of the 

 western meadowlark for the year is made up of animal matter and 

 thirty-six and seven-tenths percent of vegetable matter. The animal 

 matter is made up mostly of ground beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 cutworms, caterpillars, wireworms, stink-bugs, and ants, insects most 

 of which are injurious to crops. The vegetable matter is made up 

 of grain and seeds. Grain as food reaches a maximum in November, 

 December, and January, insects in the spring and summer months, 

 and weed seeds in September and October." These foods break down 

 into the following percentages for the year: Grain 30.8 percent, weed 

 seeds 5.3, miscellaneous vegetable food 0.6, Coleoptera 21.3, Orthop- 

 tera 20.3, Lepidoptera 12.2, Hemiptera 1.7, Hymenoptera 5.6, Dip- 

 tera 0.1, Arachnida 0.2, and miscellaneous insects 1.9 percent. Of 

 the food of the nestlings, he says: 



Stomachs of nestling western meadowlarks examined contained as high as two 

 grams of insect food. Maxima of seven large cutworms, of twelve grasshoppers 

 (three-quarters of an inch in length), and of eight beetles have been found in 

 the stomachs of nestlings. One stomach contained twenty-four ants and parts 

 of a ground beetle. * * * 



A nestling western meadowlark after obtaining no food for three hours was 

 fed twenty-eight small grasshoppers (one-half inch in length) equal in volume to 

 about three cubic centimeters. Another one was fed four grasshoppers (one inch 

 in length), twelve small grasshoppers (one-half inch in length), one robberfly, 

 one beetle, and five ants. A third one was fed thirty grains of wheat inside of 

 ten minutes." 



Bendire (1895) mentions seeing meadowlarks probing in the 

 ground, probably for locust eggs deposited just below the surface of 

 the ground. The alfalfa weevil, which does so much damage to the 

 crop in Utah and other Western States, it's largely eaten by the western 

 meadowlark where these insects are abundant. E. R. Kalmbach 

 (1914) says: "In April, 27 of these birds were collected, and the weevil, 

 which was found to comprise one-sixth of their food, was present in 

 all but seven. The insects taken were adults, and the average was 

 14.4 weevils per bird. One bird had taken 75 of these insects, another 

 60, and three others 51, 48, and 33, respectively." 



Ira La Rivers (1941) writes: "This species is by far the ablest avian 

 predator of the Mormon cricket, for it specializes upon the eggs of 

 the pest. Meadowlarks have been reported at various times as destroy- 

 ing entire, vast cricket egg-beds, and I have, on many occasions, seen 



