1914] Brijaiit: Economic Status of the Western Meadowlark 431 



vation made by ]\Ir. John G. Tyler of Fresno, California, also 

 furnishes evidence of the fact that butterflies are occasionally, 

 at least, destroyed. "While strolling along the road east of this 

 city the writer noticed a field of alfalfa that was infested with 

 yellow butterflies. A nearer approach revealed the presence of 

 several meadowlarks, and I was so fortunate as to see one of 

 these birds seize a butterfly and make way with it. I am not 

 prepared to say that the victim was actually swallowed, but it 

 was certainly captured and killed." 



The larvae of butterflies and moths are common articles of 

 diet. Cutworms and caterpillars form ten per cent of the food 

 for the year, reaching a maximum in i\Iay and June, when they 

 amount to nearly a third of the meadowlark 's food. 



Even hairy caterpillars do not escape destruction. In one 

 instance the larva of the mourning-cloak butterfly {Envanessa 

 antiopa) has been found in the stomach. Smaller hairy cater- 

 pillars are of common occurrence. Both the larva and pupa of 

 the sphinx moth have been taken from stomachs. Pupae do not 

 form so important a part of the diet as do the larvae. 



The only Lepidoptera positively identified follow: 



Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) 



Quantity destroyed. — Cutworms and caterpillars form about 

 twelve per cent of the food for the year. The maximimi quantity 

 is taken in the months of jMarch and April, when almost half of 

 the food taken is made up of these insects. Many of the stomachs 

 contained as many as twenty large cutworms or caterpillars. 

 One bird collected at Red Blufi', Tehama County, contained sixty- 

 six cutworms and over thirty .small beetles (pi. 23, fig. 5). 



