19M] Bryant: Economic Status of the Western Meadowlark 395 



4. Investigation of food according to the month in the same 

 locality. (Forbes, 1903; Bryant, 1912a.) 



5. Investigation of food according to the month in the same 

 locality, with a comparison with many different localities. (See 

 p. 454.) 



The determination of the economic status of birds has like- 

 wise progressed. The sequence of the criteria used has been as 

 follows : 



1. Inferential evidence. 



2. Circumstantial evidence. 



3. Number of injurious insects eaten. 



4. Proportion of percentage volume of injurious, neutral, and 

 beneficial insects and seeds destroyed. 



5. Contrast of all harm vs. all good, including knowledge as 

 to life-history. 



From these comparisons it can be seen that great progress 

 has been made. To infer that a bird is injurious simply because 

 it is seen in a grain field or orchard, or to brand it as injurious 

 because of circumstantial evidence in the form of grain or fruit 

 found in the stomach, are obsolete methods today. Furthermore, 

 we recognize at the present time that a bird may eat some bene- 

 ficial insects and still be a valuable bird. Nothing less than a 

 knowledge of the food for the whole year, combined with a 

 knowledge of the life-history of the bird concerned, allowing a 

 balance of all the benefits conferred with all the damage done, 

 meets the requirements of the present. 



INVESTIGATION OF THE ECONOMIC STATUS OF THE 

 WESTERN MEADOWLARK IN CALIFORNIA 



Interest centered around the meadowlark for some time pre- 

 vious to the institution of an investigation. A rather dormant 

 complaint against the depredations of the meadowlark in sprout- 

 ing grain fields was brought to a head in a bill (no. 229) intro- 

 duced by Assemblyman Stuckenbruck of San Joaquin County 



