94 V. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



which it can be distinguished from the eastern meadowlark. Its song 

 is the most easily distinguished character, being very conspicuous and 

 quite diagnostic. The differences in behavior referred to above are 

 very slight and not very constant. 



Enemies. — Cameron (1907) writes from Montana: 



Meadowlarks have many enemies, more especially Golden Eagles, Prairie 

 Falcons, Marsh Hawks, and Red-tailed Hawks. A pair of the latter, which 

 nested for several years, close to my ranch in Custer County, fed their young 

 almost entirely upon these birds. Whereas heaps of Meadowlark feathers lay 

 on a log near the tree, other remains were scarcely ever found, although the hawks 

 did occasionally procure snakes and cotton-tail rabbits. * * * 



On June 15, 1898, I surprised the female hawk just after she had seized a newly 

 flown Meadowlark which was immediately dropped. Mr. M. M. Archdale has 

 seen a female Marsh Hawk standing by a Meadowlark's nest and devouring the 

 young birds. I have several times found Meadowlarks impaled, or hanging, on 

 a barbed wire fence, and a few perish from the buffeting of spring storms. 



Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: "The Meadowlark is an assiduous 

 nester. This is not because of any unusual amativeness but because 

 young Meadowlarks are the morceaux delicieux of all the powers that 

 prey, skunks, weasels, mink, raccoons, coyotes, snakes, magpies, 

 crows. Hawks and owls otherwise blameless in the bird-world err 

 here — the game is too easy." Even the little sparrow hawk will stoop 

 for a young meadowlark. Only the fecundity of the meadowlark and 

 its skill in concealing its nest serve to perpetuate the species. 



Some nests are probably trodden upon by cattle or sheep grazing 

 in the nesting fields. Many meadowlarks die from eating grain 

 poisoned with thallium and spread on the ground to kill rodents; 

 they eat this grain readily. 



The cowbirds sometimes find the nests and lay one or more eggs in 

 them, but Dr. Friedmann (1929) knew of only five definite records; 

 it is doubtful if a young cowbird could compete with the larger young 

 of the meadowlark. 



Economic status. — A study of the food of the western meadow- 

 lark, as outlined under that heading, above, will prove it a very 

 useful and beneficial bird. The small amount of sprouting or mature 

 grain it eats is of little consequence when compared with the enormous 

 number of injurious insects it destroys, while the number of useful 

 insects it eats is too small to have much effect on the balance in its 

 favor. For an exhaustive study of the subject, the reader is referred 

 to two of Bryant's important papers (1912 and 1914). The following 

 paragraph from the latter paper is significant: "As a destroyer of 

 cutworms, caterpillars, and grasshoppers, three of the worst insect 

 pests in the State of California, the western meadowlark is probably 

 unequaled by any other bird. The stomachs of meadowlarks ex- 

 amined have averaged as high as 6 cutworms and caterpillars and 16 



