1914] Bryant: Economic Status of the Western Meadowlark 457 



During the spring and summer of 1911 the nymphalid butter- 

 fly Eugonia calif ornica became very abundant in the northern 

 part of the state. Since butterflies are seldom eaten by birds, 

 the outbreak afforded a splendid opportunity to study the food 

 habits of birds. Consequently an investigation was carried on 

 during the latter part of August at Sisson, Siskiyou County, 

 California, when these insects were in abnormal numbers. 



Apparently because of the availability of the insect, several 

 birds were found to be destroying butterflies. The Brewer black- 

 bird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) fed on them almost exclusively, 

 whereas the western meadowlark (StumeUa neglect a), western 

 kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis), blue-fronted jay (Cyanocitta 

 stellari frontalis), and Say phoebe (Sayornis say us) took them 

 sparingly. A comparison of the food of birds taken before the 

 plague with that of birds taken while the plague was at its height 

 showed that birds had varied their food habits and had taken 

 advantage of the abundant supply of insect food in the form of 

 butterflies. 



Both observation and stomach examination showed the western 

 meadowlark to feed on the butterfly (Eugonia californica). A 

 lone meadowlark feeding with some Brewer blackbirds on the 

 grass plot adjoining the station at Sisson was seen to run after 

 several butterflies and to catch one. In the examination of seven 

 stomachs, two contained butterflies. Fifteen and two-tenths per 

 cent of the food taken by the five meadowlarks collected in 

 August was made up of butterflies. All of these birds were 

 taken in meadow or cut fields of wild hay where other insect life 

 was abundant. Beetles and grasshoppers formed the bulk of 

 the food. 



Stronger evidence that birds turn their attention to the insect 

 most available can hardly be found, for in this case we find a 

 supposedly unpalatable insect becoming food for a number of 

 species of birds. The United States Biological Survey, in the 

 examination of more than 40,000 stomachs, has found but four 

 records of birds eating butterflies, ''and one of these probably 

 relates to the capture of a very recently emerged specimen, or 

 to one torn from the pupa before emergence, as it was accom- 

 panied by a pupa of the same species." (See McAtee, 1912c.) 



