19U] Bryaiif: Economic Status of the Western Mcadowlark 391 



be considered a classic. In it he presents an original method 

 of stomach examination and draws some very sane conclusions 

 from the results of thirty years' work. 



It is interesting to note that this early worker had a vision 

 of the very method which is advocated at the present time, hut 

 which has seldom been followed in detail. He says: "It ap- 

 peared that it would be of interest to gather, at different periods 

 of the j^ear, the stomachs of all birds which it might be possible 

 to procure, to examine the contents, to note down the exact results 

 of this examination, with the date of the observation, and to 

 preserve these pieces in order to form, in time, a collection by 

 means of which one can in the future verify each of the regis- 

 tered facts." He goes on to point out what he had accomplished 

 in thirty years' work and the methods which he iised in pre- 

 serving stomach contents. These methods were: drying and 

 mounting on cards, drying and preserving in a vial, and pre- 

 serving in alcohol. 



His method of examination appears to have been thorough, 

 for he suggests that an "attentive examination," in many cases, 

 made "fragments such as antennae, jaws, lips with their feelers, 

 feet, and often entire heads" give the means of determining the 

 family, genus, and, in some cases, even the .species. Following 

 this is a discussion of the results of the work. The tables used 

 are described thus: "To this end I have drawn up a uniform 

 table for all the species of birds ; each copy of this table concerns 

 a species whose name figures at the head. It represents a series 

 of columns, of which each bears the title of an alimentary regi- 

 men; it is in these columns, and conformably to their title, that 

 I have inscribed both the date of the observation and the indi- 

 cation of the objects found in the stomachs. In fine, each of 

 these tables contains a sufficient number of lines to register 

 observations made during twelve months of the year, and at five 

 different dates in each month." 



Early workers in America have often failed to consider the 

 food of a bird for the whole year. They have also failed to take 

 into consideration the fact suggested by Prevost in the following 

 words : ' ' The studies which I have pursued after the method 

 indicated above will establish the fact that the same species of 



