THE ORIOLES, BLACKBIRDS, CROWS, AND JAYS. 167 



Twenty-nine Wisconsin meadow-larks studied by Professor 

 King had eaten forty beetles, including a May-beetle, weevil, 

 tiger-beetle, and ground-beetles ; nineteen grasshoppers ; 

 many caterpillars ; one dragon-fly, and a single thistle-seed. 

 Ninety-nine per cent, of the stomach contents of thirty 

 specimens from various places in New York, Pennsylvania, 

 North Carolina, and Tennessee, shot during October and 

 November and studied by Dr. C. H. Merriam, consisted of 

 insects, including twenty-five caterpillars, fifty-seven grass- 

 hoppers, and more than eighty beetles. The seeds of clover, 

 wheat, oats, corn, and various weeds and grasses were also 

 eaten to a slight extent. Eight Nebraska meadow-larks had 

 eaten two hundred and thirteen locusts as well as locusts' 

 eggs and many other insects. 



"The farmer cannot afford, " writes Dr. S. D. Judd, "to 

 dispense with the services of the meadow-lark, for it 

 busies itself all summer eating grasshoppers and noxious 

 insects, and when autumn comes varies its diet with rag- 

 weed, pigeon-grass, and other weeds, until in December 

 these noxious plants comprise twenty-five per cent, of its 

 food." 



There has been much discussion concerning the economic 

 status of the Common Crow. By some people its merits are 

 believed to be greater than its defects : by others it is con- 

 sidered an unmitigated nuisance. There seems to be no doubt 

 that, on the whole, the crow is not a bird to be encouraged, 

 although it is not desirable that it be altogether exterminated. 

 It is a widely distributed species, occurring throughout the 

 United States, though much more abundant in some localities 

 than in others. The birds are wary, having learned wisdom 

 from experience, and it is very difficult to get within shooting 

 range of them. The crime that is most commonly laid 

 against them is that of digging or pulling up newly planted 

 grains, such as wheat and Indian corn, especially the latter; 

 in the Eastern States this has led to the almost universal use 



