24 



POOD OP SOME WELL-KNOWN BIRDS. 



AA''eed seeds are by far the largest single component (C3.9 per cent) 

 of the food of horned larks, and over 10 per cent of the 1,154 birds 

 examined had eaten them, no fewer than 206 individuals having fed 

 on them exclusively. Conspicuous among the weed seeds eaten are 

 those of the foxtail grasses, smartweeds, bindweeds, amaranth, pig- 

 weeds, purslane, 

 ragweed, and crab 

 and barn gTasses. 

 Horned larks are 

 among the most 

 efficient weed- de- 

 stroying birds. 



The insect food 

 of these birds in- 

 cludes such pests 

 as May beetles and 

 their larva?, the 

 white grubs, leaf 

 beetles injurious to 

 strawberries, cab- 

 bage, melons, and 

 sugar beets, clover- 

 leaf and clover- 

 root weevils, po- 

 tato-stalk borers, 

 nut weevils, bill 

 bugs, and the 

 chinch bug. 



Grasshoppers are 

 a favorite food ; 

 cutworms are eaten 

 freely. 



The proportion 

 of animal matter 

 in the diet of the 

 nestlings is about 

 four times as large 

 as in the adults. 

 In the nestling 

 state, therefore, horned larks are almost entirely beneficial and the, 

 number of insect pests they consume is very great. 



The horned larks of California differ markedly in food habits 

 from those of other parts of the country, being almost entirely vege- 

 tarian and, although the number examined constitutes a little more 



506 



Fig. 10. — Horned lark. 



