454 University of California Publications in Zoology [VOL. 11 



VARIATION OF FOOD HABITS ACCORDING TO LOCALITY 

 The comparison of the food of the western meadowlark in 

 California has been made in several different ways. As soon as 

 it was found definitely that the food varied greatly from one 

 part of the state to the other, it was decided to make three group- 

 ings for comparison as follows: (1) districts; (2) counties; (3) 

 localities. The wide difference in the kind and availability of 

 food in the coast region and in the interior valleys makes this 

 comparison of prime importance. Although a comparison by 

 counties covers in a measure that by districts, yet this smaller 

 unit of area brings to each rancher a knowledge of the food of 

 the meadowlark in his own county. Although the difference in 

 locality will parallel largely the difference in county, owing to 

 the fact that usually but one series of birds was collected in each 

 county, yet this comparison affords a knowledge as to the amount 

 of variation between still smaller units of area. 



Birds collected in the vicinity of San Diego took a smaller 

 percentage of insects than those collected at Riverside and San 

 Bernardino. Birds collected in the vicinity of Ukiah, Mendocino 

 County, took larger numbers of click-beetles than birds from 

 any other locality. Stomachs of birds collected in the vicinity 

 of Hollister, San Benito County, contained extraordinarily large 

 quantities of crickets. At Hanford, Kings County, birds fed 

 very extensively on cutworms. Birds collected at Newman, Stan- 

 islaus County, contained extra large percentages of stink-bugs 

 and grasshoppers. Birds from Red Bluff, Tehama County, Live 

 Oak, Yuba County, Sacramento, Sacramento County, Newman, 

 Stanislaus County, and Los Banos, Merced County, took very 

 nearly the same proportion of animal and vegetable food. 



VARIATION OF FOOD ACCORDING TO DISTRICTS 

 For the purpose of comparison the following county groupings 

 were made: 



Humid Coast Belt: Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma, Marin. 



Interior Valleys: Tehama, Butter, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Alameda, 



Merced, Stanislaus, Madera, Fresno, Kern, Kings. 

 Mountain District: Shasta, Lassen, Nevada, Calaveras. 

 Arid Coast Belt: Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Kiverside, 



Orange, San Diego. 

 Desert: Inyo, Imperial. 



