20 



LEGISLATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 



MEADOWLARKS. 



Like the flicker, the meadowlark (Sturnella magna^-ftg. 5) is consid- 

 ered game by many persons, mainly on account of the character of its 

 meat, which in some respects resembles that of quail. A few States 

 provide an open season for lark shooting, as follows: Mississippi, 

 September 15 to March 1; Missouri, August 1 to January 1; North 

 Carolina, October 15 to April 1; British Columbia, September 1 to 

 March 1; Georgia apparently allows the bird to be killed at any 

 season. Its importance to sportsmen is small in comparison with 

 its value to farmers. Professor Beal, in speaking of its food habits 

 says: "It is one of the most useful allies to agriculture, standing 

 almost without a peer as a destroyer of noxious insects. * * * 



Fig. 5.— Meadowlark (Stwrnetta magna) . 



In summing up the record of the meadowlark, two points should be 

 especially noted: (1) The bird is most emphatically an insect eater, 

 evidently preferring insects above all other food; and (2) in default 

 of its favorite food it can subsist on a vegetable diet." 1 



Professor Beal made an examination of 238 stomachs, and reported 

 that the contents comprised about 27 percent vegetable matter and 73 

 percent animal matter. In other words, nearly three-fourths of the 

 food of the meadowlark for the year, including the winter months, 

 consists of insects. The vegetable food comprises mainly seeds of 

 weeds, grasses, and a little grain, but the grain, chiefly corn, amounted 

 to only 14 percent. No sprouting corn was found in any stomach, 

 and no grain of any kind was found in stomachs taken in summer; the 

 largest quantity was eaten in January, when other food was scarce. 



1 Yearbook Dept. Agr., 1895, pp. 420 and 426. 



