CALIFORNIA HORNED LARK 
31 
would probably be largely increased if nestlings had been included in 
the examinations. It appears thai the highest percentage of animal 
matter is taken in June. This, however, is only 21.1 percent, not 
much more than half the highest monthly average for the other mem- 
bers of the species. This small percentage appears the more remark- 
able when it is stated that the birds collected in June in California 
were from places where insect life abounds. Some came from the salt 
marshes, where lly larva 1 are numerous, and others from beaches where 
small chrysomelids are plentiful. In most localities, however, insects 
are scarce during the dry season, but almost everywhere there is an 
abundanceof vegetable food accessible to the larks. All of the weeds, 
except the tarweeds and a few other drought-resisting species, dry up, 
and a litter of broken plants, which contains many seeds, covers the 
surface of the ground. Ants and grasshoppers are the only insects 
found in any numbers in 
these *dr\ pastures/ It is , 00 
therefore not surprising that 
vegetable food composes go 
91.44- percent of the diet of 
the California horned larks. 
while the larks in the re- 
mainder of the country take 
less than 80 percent of the «° 
same class of food. Of the 
vegetable matter, weed seed, 20 
which is 51. 1 percent, is less 
than the amount of the same 
kind of food taken by the 
ot her horned larks. The rest 
of the vegetable food, 40.2 
percent, is grain, including that from wild as well as from cultivated 
plants. Hence the most serious complaints of the grain-feeding habits 
of the larks come from California, and the foregoing facts partially 
justify them, 
Of the 98 horned larks examined which had eaten wheat, 23 came 
from California. Two hundred and one had eaten oats, and 130 of 
these were from California. Of the grain eaten by the horned larks 
of Calif ornia, 31.1 percent consists of oats and i>. 1 percent of wheat, 
corn having been eaten by but one bird. Oats, then, are the favorite 
food, and on this account the horned larks are liable to damage the 
crop. However, a great part of the oats consumed probably comes 
from the wild plants so abundant in all parts of the State, and the 
destruction of these is a benefit. 
The California horned larks consume only 8.56 percent of animal 
food, while the other forms collectively eat 20.61 percent. Consider- 
<yM/V 
fft 
MAR 
APR 
HAY 
JUH£ 
JiJLY 
AU& 
scpr 
ocr 
HOV 
OfC 
A 
\ 
/ 
V 
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Fig. 13.— Diagram showing the proportions of animal and 
vegetable food of the California horned lark for every 
month in the year. 
