819 



premises, as is shown especially bj^ the numbers per square 

 mile, which are approximately equal for stubble fields, mead- 

 ows, pastures, and fields of youug wheat (Table VI.). These 

 birds were about a fourth as numerous in corn fields, and a 

 fifth as numerous on plowed ground, as in meadows and fields 

 of stubble, and somewhat more numerous in these latter situa- 

 tions than in pastures and young wheat; but taking into 

 account the actual crop areas in the country covered (Table 

 VII. ) we find meadow-larks so distributed through these crops 

 as to be about equally common in pastures and stubble fields, 

 and about half as common in corn, with only 7 per cent, of their 

 number in wheat and meadow-lands respectively. Their re- 

 corded numbers on plowed ground amounted to only 1 percent, 

 of the whole number seen. The occurrence of 86 of these birds 

 per square mile in fields of young wheat suggests a possible 

 economic depredation, of which, in fact, they have been some- 

 times accused. 



Coirhinh. — The cowbird's record of occurrence for this trip 

 would be almost exclusively that of a pasture and meadow spe- 

 cies if it had not been for a fiock of 62 seen in a field of sor- 

 ghum, feeding on the seeds. Even including these in the i-atios, 

 60 per cent, were in pastures and 9 per cent, in meadows, the 

 remaining distribution being merely a scattering one. Tested 

 by the number of species per square mile in each crop, as shown 

 by Table VI., the cowbird shows no very decided choice between 

 pastures and meadow-lands, avei-aging S9 per square mile for 

 the former and 9S for the latter. The species was evidently 

 migrating at the time, as only one example was seen during 

 the last seventy miles of the trip. 



It should be noted at tiiis point that these generalizations 

 concerning gregarious birds, which roost in company or feed in 

 flocks, require a much larger body of data than those for birds 

 of solitary habit. The averages of this paper are hence more 

 likely to require amendment for blackbirds, cowlnrds, and 

 crows, as information accumulates, than for the other species 

 of our list. 



Horned Larks.— The birds of this species found in central 



