GRAIN &S POOD. 13 
no vegetable matter, while in some form or other it made up the entire 
stomach contents of 634. In this portion <>t' the food are represented 
no fewer than 105 species of plants. This great variety may Declassed 
for economic consideration under the following head-: Weeds, forage 
plants, fruits, and grain. 
< . KAIN. 
Grain furnishes M).2 percent of the food of the horned larks in Cali- 
fornia and L2.2 percent of that of the larks in the rest of the country. 
Oats, corn, and wheat form the bulk of this, kafir com and buckwheat 
being taken in insignificant amounts. 
Were all of the grain eaten by horned larks a direct loss to the 
farmer, the damage would be considerable. Hut such i- not the 
case. A- would be expected from birds so essentially terrestrial in 
habits, horned larks do not injure standing grain, nor do they U^'A 
upon grain in stacks and shocks. The grain they obtain from the 
surface i- either newly -own seed or waste, and as the latter is lost to 
the farmer in any event, it is safe to conclude that whatever damage 
the birds do occur- in sowing time. 
Wheat is damaged more than other grain crops during the sowing 
season, and the injury i- greater in California than elsewhere. Details 
of the ravages of the larks in this State are given by several corre- 
spondents. A. A. Eaton, of Riverdale, Fresno County, write- sub- 
stantially as follow-: 
I believe the worst pests in the bird line farmers have to endure are the horned 
lark-, [n winter they come in thousands and eat wheat sewn broadcast bo badly 
that I have bad to drill it in. They leave the whole wheat, however, assoOD as they 
find any that has Bprouted. They then select spots, generally where there have been 
some weeds, and pull up. and even scratch, in the manner of a hen. the better to get 
at the whole. In such places nol a stalk is left standing. 
M. S. Feather-tone, of Go-hen. Tulare County, which is in the 
midst of the best wheat-growing section of the State, says: 
Small brown birds which we call wheat birds arc quite nnmeroUfl doling the 
sowing season some years. Ten or twelve years ago they were unusually active, and 
many people sowed poisoned wheat and left it on top of the ground to destroy them 
before the regular sowing. I had about 4 acres left, not harrowed, one Saturday 
night, and every kernel was gone by Monday morning, picked up by the wheat 
birds and meadow larks. During the latter part of January and the first part oi 
February last year 1895) wheal birds wen- plentiful and did much damage. The 
early so wn grain was not injured by them. 1 put out some poisoned grain (a gallon 
. and my boy- picked up about 600 in a few days. They also found ■'! mourning 
doves and some meadow larks (a dozen or two). I think the wheat birds also pull 
up the sprouting grain. These little bird- are yellowish on the throat and fly in 
tloek>. I have not noticed them except in the early spring. 
