2. Investigation of complaints that meadowlarks are destructive to 

 melons has shown that damage caused in this way has been exaggerated. 

 Melon growers, although admitting that the birds cause considerable 

 damage, have often been unable to demonstrate the actual damage in 

 the field. Of two melon growers in the vicinity of Dinuba, whose names 

 \\nv handed in as men who were greatly troubled, one returned a ver- 

 dict of ''not guilty" and the other admitted that the damage was not 



, **>' 



f^ - f . 



\ 



I 



* 



' v - V 



FIG. 2. Red-winged blackbirds feeding on kafir corn. Photograph taken by H. C. 

 Bryant, at Lathrop, San Joaquin County, California, October 3, 1912. 



very great. All of the growers report that as soon as there are broken 

 melons in the field the birds cease to be troublesome. From the evidence 

 obtainable, it appears that the meadowlark drills into melons to obtain 

 water. The placing of water in a field as an experiment would doubt- 

 less confirm or abrogate this view. Such an experiment is contemplated. 

 3. Censuses have demonstrated that the western meadowlark prefers 

 grass land to cultivated land, nearly 50 per cent more birds being found 

 on the first named. 



