LARK SPARROW. 67 



and a very fine songster, two qualities that have caused it to become 

 a favorite cage bird. 



Its food habits have been investigated by the examination of the 

 contents of 167 stomachs, collected during every month in the year 

 except March. Most of these stomachs were collected in Kansas, 

 Texas, and California, but a number were taken in the Dakotas, 

 Michigan, Iowa, and the Province of Ontario. The food consists of 

 animal matter (all insects) 27 percent, and vegetable matter (all seeds) 

 73 percent. 



The lark sparrow is, with the exception of the dickcissel and grass- 

 hopper sparrow, the most valuable grasshopper destroyer of all the 

 native sparrows. More than half of its animal food (14 percent of the 

 total) consists of these insects, and in June they constitute 43 per- 

 cent of the diet. On the prairies and x^lains this bird does much good 

 in helping to check invasions of the Rocky Mountain locust. The 

 preponderance of grasshopper food in the diet dwarfs the other ele- 

 ments of the insect fare, which is rather less in proportion than is 

 usual with sparrows. A fair quantity of weevils was found in the 

 stomachs, but other beetles as well as caterpillars appear far below 

 the general average, although in its elements the animal food conforms 

 well with that of other species of sparrows. 



The vegetable food is of especial interest. One-half of it con- 

 sists of the seeds of grain and grass, a fact which fully sustains the 

 bird's specific name of grammacus. Pigeon-grass is largely fed on, 

 but a marked partiality is likewise shown for grasses of the genus 

 Panicmn. The seeds of Johnson grass are also eaten freely, espe- 

 cially in the case of birds collected in Texas in December. The total 

 consumption of the seeds of various grasses during the ^''ear amounts 

 to 21 percent of the food. 



The lark sparrow is more of a grain eater than the majority of other 

 native sparrows; corn, wheat, and oats constitute 13 percent of its 

 diet. The greatest part, however, is secured in winter; the maximum 

 amount, 42 percent, is eaten in January, and grain constitutes 28 per- 

 cent of the February food ; hence, much of it must be picked up as 

 waste. The birds collected during April, May, and September, when 

 grain is usually sown, had eaten nothing but w^eed seeds and insects, 

 which seems to show that the lark sparrow takes no part in the dis- 

 turbance of newly sown grain, so annoying in the case of some spe- 

 cies of grain-eating birds; and though cereals form 19 percent of the 

 food of July and 12 percent of that of August, no complaints of dam- 

 age to harvests have been received by the Department, and it is 

 likely that much, if not all, that is taken at this time is picked up from 

 the ground, and that its grain eating is therefore of little consequence. 



The most peculiar feeding habit of the lark sparrow is its partiality 

 for the seeds of leguminous plants, such as those of cassia, clover, and 

 alfalfa, which are freely eaten. They form 8 percent of the food for 



