Knui) of rOUNG BORNED LARKS. 
29 
of the greater striped flea-beetle (Disonycha caroliniana) (fig. LI), a 
foliage-feeding species. The most important element of the animal 
food, however, was grasshoppers (Acrtdiidse). These comprised 41.5 
percent of all the food, and no less than 99 percent 
of tin 1 contents of one of the stomachs. ( rrasshoppers 
are a favorite dirt foi the nestlings of many birds. 
and sometimes arc fed to them almost to the total 
exclusion <>f other food-. Prof. Samuel Aughey, in 
Nebraska, during the month of May. found the horned 
larks feeding almost wholly upon young grasshoppers, 
great numbers of which they wen- carrying to their 
nestlings. The stomach of one lark was found to 
contain 4'J locusts and 33 small seeds. 
Other animal matter fed to tin 1 nestlings examined 
by the writer consisted of chrysalids of Leaf-mining moths ( Tineida ). 
leaf bugs {Gopsidx), spiders, ant-lions (Myrmel&midse), thirteen of 
which formed ♦'•<» percent of the contents of one stomach, and centi- 
pede- ( ( 'kiloporfa). 
In the nestling state, therefore, horned larks an 1 almost entirely 
beneficial, and the number of insect pests they consume i- ver\ great. 
Adults have been seen to carry food to the nest twenty times in an 
* hour, and thev continue 
Wjq. U— Greater strip- 
nycha caroliniana). 
Three Hmi - 
oral si 
their vi>it> throughout the 
day for a week or more: 
and it is to he remembered 
that this species raises two 
or three broods in a year. 
Each family thus destroys 
a host of insects, and the 
quantity consumed by the 
birds throughout North 
America i- almost beyond 
computation. As our exam- 
inations show that weevils 
and grasshoppers compose 
the great hulk of the insect 
food of the nestlings, their 
economic value can hardly 
he overestimated. 
Concerning tin 1 fully 
fledged young, Professor 
BarrOWS noted that they eat 
less animal matter than tin 1 adults, a conclusion continued by exanii 
nation of the more abundant material now available (see tin - . L2). 
Fig. 12.— Coluiiins allowing the proportions of Insects, grain, 
ami weed Bead eaten by the following: a. California la rk<: 
B, larks in tir-i plumage; C, total number examined ex- 
clusive of California birds; i>. nestlings. 
« First Ann. Report r - s - Kntnm. Comm., A.pp, II. p. 18, Is7v 
