LARK BUNTING 645 



with addition of light edgings, especially on middle pair of feathers. Bill, legs, 

 and feet lighter than in male. 



Chapman (1914) describes the sequences of plumages as follows: 



The nestling male is bufTy white, faintly streaked below; above the feathers are 

 blackish margined with buffy, producing a somewhat scaled appearance. At the 

 postjuvenal molt the tail and wing-quills are retained, the rest of the plumage 

 molted. The new plumage (first winter) resembles that of the female but the 

 wings and tail are blacker and there is more black on the underparts, particularly 

 on the throat. 



The breeding or nuptial plumage is gained by a spring or prenuptial molt, in 

 which, as in the postjuvenal or first fall molt, the tail and wing-quills are re- 

 tained. The body plumage, wing coverts and tertials are shed and replaced by 

 the black-and-white breeding-dress. Birds in their first nuptial plumage may 

 now be distinguished from fully mature birds by their browner wings and tail and, 

 often, less intensely black body feathers. 



At the post nuptial or fall molt, which, as usual, is complete, the bird assumes a 

 costume somewhat like that of the first winter, but the tail and wing-cjuills are 

 now fully black and there is more black on the underparts. 



Albino lark buntings apparently are not common, but a few have 

 been observed, and at least one specimen has been collected. 



Food. — Although the feeding habits of the lark bunting have not 

 been studied as systematically as one might expect for so prominent and 

 abundant a species, it is clear that the food in summer consists pre- 

 dominantly of insects together with a considerably lesser quantity 

 of seeds of useless plants. The young are fed almost exclusively on 

 insects. Langdon (1933) summarizes data in the files of the Bureau of 

 Biological Survey as follows: "An examination of thu'ty-six stomachs, 

 mostly collected in July and August, revealed 79.08 per cent animal 

 matter and 20.92 per cent vegetable matter in the bird's total diet. 

 The percentages of insects were: Grasshopper, 62.44; beetle, with 

 weevils predominating, 11.33; true bugs (Hemiptera), 2.67; Hymenop- 

 tera (mainly wild bees and ants), 2.08; and miscellaneous (flies, moth 

 larvae, etc.), 0.56. Seeds eaten were: Grasses, 7.47 per cent (2.36 

 per cent of these were cultivated grain seeds, probably mainly waste 

 material). The remaining 13^5 per cent of the total diet was made 

 up of seeds of pigweed, knotweed, gromwell, prickly poppy, verbena, 

 goosefoot, etc." 



Numerous less detailed observations from the field tend to sub- 

 stantiate these data. Thus, Knowlton (1947) described the stomach 

 contents of a lark bunting collected among the sagebrush and rabbit- 

 brush fence rows in central Utah in 1941 as containing "1 fly, 1 beetle, 

 and 1 harvester ant, besides insect fragments. Also present was a 

 spider, 65 seeds, mostly of weeds, and two Russian thistle plant 

 fragments." The stomach contents of a second specimen collected 

 at about the same time consisted of: "2 beetles (1 a weevil), 3 



