THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 213 



In midwinter, in the southern counties of the State, the Larks 

 gather in considerable flocks, and in the flat stretches about Salem I 

 have seen flocks that numbered at least two hundred individuals. The 

 Meadow Lark is one of the most valuable birds to the farmer. Three- 

 quarters of its food consists of insects, and during the late summer it 

 feeds mainly upon grasshoppers. The United States Department of 

 Agriculture estimates that twenty Meadow Larks consume one thou- 

 sand grasshoppers a day during the season. A grasshopper consumes 

 an amount of grass equal to its own weight each day, so that the 

 amount consumed by one thousand would be about two and a quarter 

 pounds per day, or in the usual life of a grasshopper, which is about 

 thirty days, the amount of grass consumed would be sixty-six pounds, 

 which is the amount saved to the farmer each day by the twenty 

 Meadow Larks. 



A curious specimen, in which the yellow is entirely replaced by 

 black, was secured at Haddonfield and presented to the Philadelphia 

 Academy, by B. B. Willis, October 6th, 1857. 



506 Icterus spurius (Linnaeus). 

 Orchard Oriole. 



PLATE. 



Adult male. Length, 6-7. Wing, 3. Head, neck, back and scapulars, uni- 

 form black ; tail, black ; wings, black, with pale buff edgings ; shoulders, as 

 well as rump and under surface of body, rich chestnut. 



Adult female. Yellowish olive-green above ; canary yellow below ; wings 

 dusky, with two whitish wing bars and whitish edgings to tertials. 



Young in first summer and autumn. Similar to adult female. 



Male in first breeding season. Similar to adult female, but with entire 

 throat and lores black, often with more or less chestnut feathers below and 

 black ones above, and with some black on the tail. 



Nest a pocket-like structure of dry grass hung from the end of a tree limb ; 

 eggs, three to five, grayish-white, blotched or irregularly streaked with black 

 and brown, .80 x .55. 



Common summer resident. Arrives May 1st (May 5th), departs 

 September 1st. 



The Orchard Oriole is a bird of the garden and orchard, seldom 

 found out in the woodland, except after the nesting season is over, 

 when parties of old and young may be found in various localities. 



