16 BORNED LABKS IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 
In the following letter George Lang, of Indian Head, Assiniboia, 
describes the depredations of the lark in greater detail, and points out 
that the use of deep planting drills lias rendered the birds harmless: 
The damage is dour as a rule aboul the firsl two weeks in May while the wheal is 
in the fust leaf. I have examined the Btomachsof hundreds ol specimens, and in 
almosi every case I found grains of wheat. These birds, in company with snow 
buntings and chestnut-collared buntings, are here in millions from about April 15 to 
May 15. They pick ap all uncovered kernels firsl and then as soon as the young 
shoots appear above ground they follow up the rows and pull up the stalk, eating 
only the sprouted kernel, and leave the leaf lying on the ground. Of course they 
break off a great many more than they uproot, hut still they thin out the grain to 
quite an extent. In earlier years, before we began using drills for seeding wheat, we 
always counted on one-half bushel to the acre for the grain birds, as we counted they 
would pick up that amount. I know of fields that had to be seeded over the second 
time where the harrows were not kept elope up to the seeder. I have also been 
driven to poisoning wheat and scattering around the fields. < >f late years we do not 
notice these birds so much. I suppose on account of the increased acreage the birds 
are more scattered, and also on account of the press drills putting the ^rvi\ too deep 
for the birds to uproot. 
As in tin 4 case of the Calif orriia Larks, stomach examinations confirm 
Held observations with regard to the grain-eating habits of the larks 
of the central plains wheat region. Of 23 stomachs of horned larks 
collected here in April and the same number in May. 4*> in all, 1 1 
contained wheat. Seven of these were collected on April 5 in a 
newly sown wheat field at Kennedy. Nebr., and all held wheat. The 
average amount for the 7 was 28.4 percent, and no individual had 
taken more than 35 percent. The remainder of the food was weed 
seed-. These were seeds of sunflower, tumbleweed. and pigweed. 
Thus the birds which had made something over a fourth of their meal 
of wheat had eaten nearly three times that amount of the seeds of the 
worst weeds in the country. If fully a third of their food had been 
wheat, the average percentage of grain for the whole lb would be 
only slightly over 7 percent, an amount clearly too trivial to warrant 
the condemnation of the birds, especially in view of the fact that the 
remainder of their food consists of the seeds of noxious weeds. 
It is of Importance to note that the complaints quoted above were 
made several years ago when broadcast sowing was the rule. Recent 
correspondence shows that drilled fields of wheat are pract ically safe 
from injury by the birds. 
( ORN. 
( !orn constitutes 4.97 percent of the food of the horned larks. Since 
it is always planted rather deeply. sv^\ corn is quite oul of their reach, 
and even grains lying' on the surface in a condition to germinate are 
probably not eaten by these birds, since the grain IS too large to be 
swallowed whole, and their weak bills are entirely inadequate to the 
