66 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



For the determination of the food of the meadowlark 91 stomachs 

 were available, distributed throughout the year. The food consists 

 of 70 percent of animal matter to 30 of vegetable. Broadly speaking, 

 the animal matter is made up of insects and the vegetable of seeds. 



Animal food. — Beetles are the largest item of the animal part of 

 the diet. They are evidently a favorite food, for they are eaten 

 in every month, with a good percentage in nearly all of them. The 

 amount for the year is almost 27 percent. Practically half of this 

 consists of the predatory ground beetles (Carabidse). It is not sur- 

 prising that the meadowlark should eat these beetles, for nearly all 

 of them live on the ground, and walk and run much more than they 

 fly; hence they are easily taken. As nearly all the species subsist 

 largely upon other insects, their destruction must be considered as a 

 flaw in this bird's record. All the other beetles eaten are harmful 

 or neutral, and include a number of weevils. One stomach contained 

 36 yucca weevils (RJiigopsis effracta). The greatest number of beetles 

 appears to have been eaten in March, when they amount to 72 percent, 

 but as only two stomachs were available for that month the record 

 is unreliable. 



Wasps and ants (Hymenoptera) aggregate nearly 6 percent. 

 They were eaten in every month but two, and ample material would 

 undoubtedly show them in every month. Ants, being the more 

 terrestrial, seem to be more natural food for the meadowlark than 

 wasps or bees, but the bird gets a good share of both. Bugs (Hemip- 

 tera) were eaten to the extent of a little more than 4 percent. 

 Nearly all of them were stinkbugs (Pentatomidae) . They were not 

 eaten very regularly, and several months were not represented. May 

 was the month of greatest consumption, 27 percent, but this may have 

 been accidental. 



Lepidoptera, largely caterpillars, aggregate about 15 percent. 

 They were eaten in every month except August, when they were re- 

 placed by grasshoppers. February is apparently the month of maxi- 

 mum consumption, but a greater number of stomachs might prove 

 differently. It is thought that many of these are of the kinds known 

 as cutworms, though none were positively identified. All were un- 

 doubtedly terrestrial species, for the meadowlark is not known to seek 

 food anywhere but on the ground. 



Grasshoppers, when abundant, are usually eaten very freely by 

 all ground feeding birds and by many arboreal species. The west- 

 ern meadowlark eats them to the extent of something more than 

 12 percent of its yearly food. This is a very small percentage for a 

 bird of such terrestrial habits. The eastern form eats them to the 

 extent of 29 percent, and in August the amount taken reaches 69 

 percent of the food of that month. With the western species the 

 consumption reaches 42 percent in August, which is the maximum 



