172 BIRDS OP PENNSYLVANIA. 



grassy fields and meadows, but during the winter when deep snows 

 cover their common feeding grounds, they often visit the barnyards, 

 and, if not molested will become rather tame. They also, at these 

 periods of snow inundation, assemble in the public highways and 

 glean a scanty subsistence from the droppings of horses. Although 

 Larks frequently alight on trees, they never, I think, are seen to feed 

 in such places, their food is collected from the ground. In spring the 

 flocks break up and these birds are observed singly or in pairs. Nest- 

 building, in this latitude, is begun late in April or early in May. 

 Both sexes engage in constructing their nest, composed of dried grass, 

 placed on the ground, and most ingeniously concealed in a thick tuft 

 of grass. The nests are built in meadows and grass fields, and fre- 

 quently, though not always rest in a concavity of the earth. 



The oval, white eggs, usually five in number, are spotted with red- 

 dish-brown ; they vary considerably in size, but average about 1.16 

 inches long by .80 of an inch wide. Their food consists of various 

 forms of insects, among which may be mentioned beetles, grasshop 

 pers, larvae, earthworms, ants, etc. The Lark, like the Red-winged 

 Blackbird, is fond of " cut- worms," he also subsists on the seeds of va- 

 rious grasses, weeds, etc., and according to Mr. Gentry they some- 

 times feed on wild cherries, wild strawberries and blackberries. Al- 

 though this species will sometimes eat the grains of wheat, oats, rye 

 or particles of corn which they find scattered on the ground in fields 

 or other places, they rarely disturb these cereals when growing, and 

 never commit in grain fields any depredations at or about the season 

 of harvest. Seventeen Meadow Larks, which I captured (March and 

 April, 1885), in the open pine woods of Florida, were found to have 

 fed only on insects, chiefly beetles. In December, 1886, 1 killed seven 

 of these birds in Chester county, Pa., their stomachs were all gorged 

 with grasshoppers. In the Carolinas, Audubon says, many planters 

 agree in denouncing the Lark as a depredator, C; alleging that it 

 scratches up oat seeds, when sown early in spring, and is fond of 

 plucking up the young corn, wheat, rye or rice." 



GENUS ICTERUS. BRISSON. 

 506. Icterus spurius (LiNN.). 



Orchard Oriole. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill slender, very acute and somewhat decurved ; bill and feet bluish black ; iris 

 brown. Adult male Head and neck all round, upper portion of breast and back, 

 scapulars, tail and wings (except middle and lesser coverts, which are chestnut) 

 deep black with slight gloss, particularly about head and throat ; lateral tail feathers 

 with white tips. Rest of under parts, lower part of back, upper tail coverts dark 

 chestnut brown, deepest on breast ; greater wing coverts black, edged with white, 



