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United S.tates Department of the ■'-nterior, J. A. Knag, Secretary 

 .. ■ Fish and '■M.ldlife SerAn.ce, Albert K. Day, Director 



VJildlife Leaflet 508 



,'ashington 25, 



■ u • ^ • 



June I9U8 



PaPTSCTIUG CPiOP? FROr DAI "AG ^ BY HOM^.D LARICS I'' ' CALIPQg^IA 

 By Johnson A, Heff , Biolor.i st. Branch of V.'ildlife Research 



Contents 



Page 



Introduction •• 1 



Crops damaged. .*. 2 



Fatv'.re of damage . ♦ ♦'.'... • . 3 



Season of damage .*. 3 



Severity of damage ........ ii 



Control methods ...'.'' ■ 5 



Methods of preventing damage ... 5 



Noise-making devices « 5 



Shooting or herding-off. .... 5 



Page 



;Iuethods of preventing damage contd 

 Attracting vultures *..... 6 



Scarecrows. 6 



Paper confetti 6 



Papers on -the ground. ..... 6 



Stakes and flags. ......'■. 7 



Continuous strinr flagging. . • J 

 Estimate of costs of continous 



string flagging 10 



IHTEDDlICnOF 



In certain parts of California the homed lark has become a serious crop 

 destroyer. The damage occurs mostly in the interior valleys from Sacramento 

 south to the Imperial Valley, and along the coastal strip from San' Francisco 

 south to San Diego. The race of lark concerned throughout most of the area 

 is the California homed lark (Otocoris alpestris actia) . ITiere are a fev/ 

 recorded instances near Sacramento of damage by the ruddy horned lark 

 (Otocoris alpestris rubea) . Certain attacks in the Fojave Desert region, the 

 Imperial Valley, and othor desert valleys, in southeastern California were 

 probably committed by other and as yet undetermined subspecies, 



A bird fond of deserts, prairies, and fallov; fields, in general, t]ie 

 homed lark ranges from the snovy lino to sandy bee.ches, wherever there is 

 open couhtrj^. lAfter v-dnterirg in great numbers on the vallej'' floors, most 

 of those birds leave the farming sections early in spring and ragrate into 

 the foothills or into the dry grasslands and desert. Here th<3 season of 

 nesting and roaring tho young is spent. 



There is a moderately constant population of homed larks resident in 

 stubble, grass, and fallovf fields in the cropped area, but the mass of the 

 birds live ir the v/ide expanses of the deserts, rolling, mesas, foothills. 



I'^OTE, — This leaflet supersedes T.ildlife Research and Tanagoment Leaflet 

 BS-6L, issued in September 193^ by tho former Bureau of Biological Survey, 

 of the Department of Agriculture. 



