426 YEARBOOK OF THE U. 8S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
‘Chameraphis, ete.) are preferred, for in this month grain amounts 
to only 6 per cent, while weed seeds reach 15 per cent. 
_ Insumming up the record of the meadow lark, 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. Prof. 8. A. 
Forbes, in discussing the food of predaceous beeties (Bull. IIL State 
Lab. Nat. Hist., Vol. I, No. 3, p. 159), calls attention to the fact that 
species which are able to vary their diet and subsist upon vegetable 
food when their ordinary supply of insects fails, are much more valu- 
able than those which are entirely carnivorous. This is exactly the 
ease with the meadow lark. For this reason a relatively short migra- 
tion enables it to bridge over periods of scarcity of its favorite food. 
FOOD OF THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
The Baltimore oriole, golden robin, or hang-nest (fig. 111), as it is 
variously called, is so well and so favorably known throughout the 
country that it may seem almost unnecessary to show that its food 
habits are as beneficial as its song and plumage are pleasing. In most 
places where this bird makes its home, the people, especially the 
farmer-folk, would no more think of killing it or destroying its nest 
than would the Hollander shoot the stork that nests on his roof. 
The Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula) breeds throughout the east- 
ern United States north of Virginia, and reaches somewhat farther 
south in the Mississippi Valley. It is abundant in New England, and 
extends west over the tree-covered parts of the Great Plains, beyond 
which it is replaced by another species of much the same appearance 
(I. bullockt), In New England the oriole usually comes with the 
flowering of the apple trees, in the latter half of May; in the West it 
appears somewhat earlier. As its food consists largely of insects that 
live in the foliage of trees, its arrival in the North is delayed until 
these have become plentiful. It begins to move southward early in 
August, and is rarely seen in September, though one of the specimens 
examined was taken in Connecticut as late as November 16; but this 
must be regarded as a belated straggler. The species passes south of 
the United States, to spend the winter in the warmer countries beyond. 
The present preliminary report is based on the examination of the 
contents of 113 stomachs, collected in 12 States, the District of Co- 
lumbia, and Canada, and ranging from Massachusetts, on the east, to 
Kansas and North Dakota, on the west. They were all collected dur- 
ing the months from April to August, inclusive, with the exception 
of a single specimen taken in November. They are distributed by 
months as follows: April, 2; May, 45; June, 32; July, 18; August, 15; 
and November, 1. 
The food for the whole season consisted of 83.4 per cent of animal 
matter and 16.6 per cent of vegetable matter. The mineral matter 
