23 
The grain, principally corn, is mostly eaten m winter and early spring, 
and must be therefore simply waste kernels; only a trifle is consumed 
in summer and autumn, when it is most plentiful. No trace of sprout- 
ing grain was discovered. Clover seed was found in only six stomachs, 
and but little ineach. Seeds of weeds, principally ragweed, barn grass, 
and smartweed, are eaten from November to April, inclusive, but during 
the rest of the year are replaced by insects. 
Briefly stated, more than half of the meadow lark’s food consists of 
harmfulinsects; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds 
or waste grain, and the remainder is made up of useful beetles or neu- 
tral insects and spiders. A strong point in the bird’s favor is that, 
although naturally an insect eater, it is able to subsist on vegetable food, 
and consequently is not forced to migrate in cold weather any farther 
than is necessary to find ground free from snow. This explains why it 
remains for the most part in the United States during winter, and 
moves northward as soon as the snow disappears from its usual haunts. 
There is one danger to which the meadow lark is exposed. As its 
flesh is highly esteemed the bird is often shot for the table, but it is 
entitled to all possible protection, and to slaughter it for game is the 
least profitable way to utilize a valuable species. 
THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
(Icterus galbula.) 
Brilliancy of plumage, sweetness of song, and food habits to which 
no exception can be taken are some of the striking characteristics of 
the Baltimore oriole (fig. 12). In summer this species is found through- 
out the northern half of the United States east of the Great Plains, 
and is welcomed and loved in every country home in that broad land. 
In the Northern Stutes it arrives rather late, and is usually first seen, 
or heard, foraging amidst the early bloom of the apple trees, where it 
searches for caterpillars or feeds daintily on the surplus blossoms. 
Its nest commands hardly less admiration than the beauty of its 
plumage or the excellence of its song. Hanging from the tip of the 
outermost bough of a stately elm, it is almost inaccessible, and so 
strongly fastened as to bid defiance to the elements. 
By watching an oriole which has a nest one may see it searching 
among the smaller branches of some neighboring tree, carefully exam- 
ining each leaf for caterpillars, and occasionally trilling a few notes to 
its mate. Observation both in the field and laboratory shows that 
caterpillars constitute the largest item of its fare. In 113 stomachs 
they formed 34 per cent of the food, and are eaten in varying quantities 
during all the months in which the bird remains in this country, 
although the fewest are eaten in July, when a little fruit is also taken. 
The other insects consist of beetles, bugs, ants, wasps, grasshoppers, 
and some spiders. The beetles are principally click beetles, the larvee 
of which are among the most destructive insects known; and the bugs 
