EASTERN MEADOWLARK 69 



F. E. L. Beal (1926), in a report of a detailed analysis of the con- 

 tents of 1,514 stomachs of meadow larks, found that 74 percent con- 

 sisted of animal food and 26 percent of vegetable matter. The 

 animal food consisted of practically all insects, chiefly "ground" 

 species such as beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, with a few 

 flies, wasps, and spiders. Of the various insects eaten, crickets and 

 grasshoppers are the most important, constituting 26 percent of the 

 food of the year and 72 percent of the food in August. Of the 1,514 

 stomachs collected at all seasons of the year, 778, or more than half, 

 contained remains of grasshoppers, and one was filled with fragments 

 of 37 of these insects. Next to grasshoppers, beetles are the most 

 important food item of the meadowlark, food amounting to about 25 

 percent. Forty-two adult May beetles and numerous white grubs of 

 this beetle, a most destructive insect, notably to grasses and grain, 

 were found. Among the weevils the cotton-boll and alfalfa weevil 

 were the most important economically. Caterpillars, including many 

 cutw-orms, form a constant element of the food and in May constitute 

 over 24 percent of the entire food. Adult moths and butterflies are 

 seldom eaten. The remainder of the insect food is made up of ants, 

 wasps, and spiders, with some bugs, including chinch bugs, and a few 

 scales. 



The vegetable food, according to Beal (1926), consists of grain 

 and weed and other hard seeds. Grain was found chiefly in stomachs 

 collected in winter and early spring; hence it represented waste ma- 

 terial. Clover seed was found in only six stomachs and but little in 

 each. Seeds of ragweed, bare^ard grass, and smartweed are eaten 

 from November to April, inclusive, but during the rest of the year 

 are replaced by insects. 



As for the food and behavior of meadowlark young, G. B. Saunders 

 (MS., see p. 56) says that within an hour after the meadowlark is 

 hatched it receives its first meal of cutworms, other small insects, 

 and spiders. Young grasshopper nymphs which the female has 

 mashed between her mandibles may be included in these early meals. 

 When the adult arrives at the nest, insects can be seen projecting 

 from her bill, and these she feeds to the young by squatting on her 

 tarsi in front of the entrance and putting morsels well down the 

 throat of each youngster. When the young are satisfied she resumes 

 her brooding. During brooding, a nestling may get hungry, in which 

 case the female raises her breast and reaching down into the nestling's 

 open mouth, gives it either some insects which were left over, or a 

 meal of regurgitated food. That she regurgitates is clearly shown 

 by the pumping action of her neck and head. During the first few 

 days there is no pronounced change in the routine of tho^f emale,t for 



