20 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 1755, 
announcing the return of the season of procreation and growth. For its home it 
chooses level, slightly undulating land free from trees, and, if possible, with a 
supply of water near at hand, for the meadowlark delights in a clear running brook 
for drinking and bathing. Its nest is built on the ground among the dead herbage 
of the last year’s growth, and is usually overarched to protect the eggs and the sitting 
bird from the weather, and is often so completely buried from sight as to defy detection 
by the most skillful searcher. The bird’s preference for unmown fields covered with 
what farmers call ‘‘old for” has given rise to the name of ‘‘old-field lark,”” by which 
it is known in many places. 
The great bulk of the species is migratory from the Northern States, but from the 
latitude of Pennsylvania southward the bird is found throughout the winter, its num- 
bers somewhat increasing farther south. 
As arule, farmers have made little complaint of this bird, but a Georgia farmer says 
that meadowlarks and crows do much harm to his corn and oats when first planted; 
that they seem to pull up the sprouting seed for the fun of it, as they do not eat 
half what they pull up; and that the meadowlarks are much more destructive than 
the crows. A Tennessee farmer reports that the meadowlarks eat clover seed (pre- 
sumably newly sown) to an injurious extent. As these are the only complaints of 
any consequence against this bird, among thousands relating to damage done by 
others, it would appear that the habits of the meadowlark do not seriously conflict 
with the interests of the farmer. This supposition is fully substantiated by the 
results of examination of the bird’s food, and it is still further shown that, so far from 
being injurious, the meadowlark is one of the most useful allies of agriculture, stand- 
ing almost without a peer as a destroyer of noxious insects. 
In the laboratory investigation 890 stomachs were examined, representing all the — 
southeastern States, and every month of the year. Analysis of the contents showed 
animal food, chiefly insects, 78.12 per cent, and vegetable, 21.88 per cent. 
As illustrating this bird’s vigilance in its search for insects, an instructive lesson 
may be drawn from the food of a group of six birds taken when the ground was cov- 
ered with snow. The stomach having the least insect food contained 8 per cent; that 
with the most had 95 per cent; and the average for the six was over 47 per cent, or 
nearly half the total food. The insects consisted of beetles of several species, true 
bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, a few wasps, caterpillars, spiders, and myriapods. It 
thus seems evident that insects are essential to the diet of this bird and that great 
efforts are made to obtain them even under very adverse circumstances. 
Of the insect food of the 890 birds, by far the most important elements were grass- 
hoppers, long-horned or green grasshoppers, and crickets (27 per cent). In January 
they form more than 9 per cent of the total food, and increase rapidly until October, 
when they reach the surprising total of 56 per cent. During the succeeding months 
they decrease slowly, and in November still constitute 40 per cent. It is extremely 
doubtful if any other bird will be able to show a better record for the destruction of 
grasshoppers. One stomach examined contained 37 individuals; but it should be 
borne in mind that the birds that form the subject of this paper were not collected 
from any region specially infested, but were gathered from all parts of the Southern 
States, and of the whole number, 466 contained grasshoppers. 
Beetles of many species stand next to crickets and grasshoppers in importance, and 
constitute nearly 18 per cent of the annual food. One of the most harmful of these 
is the family of the May beetles or leaf chafers, the average consumption of which 
amounts to about 9 per cent for the year, and the greatest, 28 per cent, in May. 
Most of these are dung beetles, but remains of the well-known May beetles were 
found. Snout beetles, or weevils, form a small but very constant element of the food 
(about 4 per cent). Beetles belonging to about a dozen other families collectively 
constitute about 3 per cent of the whole food. Of importance in considering the diet 
ee 
