46 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



constituting 29 per cent of the entire year's food and 6g per cent of the food in 

 August. It is scarcely necessary to enlarge upon this point, but it can readily be 

 seen what an effect a number of these birds must have on a field of grass in the 

 height of the grasshopper season. Of the 238 stomachs collected at all seasons of 

 the year, 178, or more than two-thirds, contained remains of grasshoppers, and one 

 was filled with fragments of 37 of these insects. This seems to show conclusively 

 that grasshoppers are preferred and are eaten whenever they can be procured. The 

 great number taken in August is especially noticeable. This is essentially the grass- 

 hopper month, i. e., the month when grasshoppers reach their maximum abundance ; 

 and the stomach examination has shown that a large number of birds resort to this 

 diet in August, no matter what may be the food during the rest of the year. 



" Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the Meadow- 

 lark's food, amounting to nearly 21 per cent, of which about one-third are preda- 

 ceous ground beetles. The others are all harmful species, and when it is considered 

 that the bird feeds exclusively on the ground, it seems remarkable that so few useful 

 ground beetles are eaten. Many of them have a disgusting odor, and possibly this 

 may occasionally save them from destruction by birds, especially when other food 

 is abundant. Caterpillars, too, form a very constant element, and in May constitute 

 over 28 per cent of the whole food. May is the month when the dreaded cut worm 

 begins its deadly career, and then the bird does some of its best work. Most of 

 these caterpillars are ground feeders, and are overlooked by birds which habitually 

 frequent trees ; but the Meadowlark finds them and devours them by thousands. 

 The remainder of the insect food is made up of a few ants, wasps and spiders, with 

 a few bugs, including some chinch bugs. 



" The vegetable food consists of grain, weed, and other hard seeds ; grain in gen- 

 eral amounts to 14, and weed and other seeds to 12 per cent. The grain, principally 

 corn, is mostly eaten in 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 sprouting grain was discovered. Clover seed was found in 

 only six stomachs, and but little in each. 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 Meadowlark's food consists of harmful 

 insects ; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds or waste grain, and 

 the remainder is made up of useful beetles or neutral insects and spiders. A strong 

 point in the bird's favor is that, although naturally an insect eater, it is able to sub- 

 sist on vegetable food, and, consequently, is not forced to migrate in cold weather 



