COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
21 
of every bird is the extent to which it cats predacious ground beetles. From its 
habits the meadowlark might be expected to feed largely upon these beetles, as they 
live upon the ground for the most part and are very abundant. Examination shows 
that these insects constitute somewhat more than 11 per cent of the food of the year. 
When it is considered how exclusively the meadowlark feeds upon the ground, this 
is certainly a very moderate exhibit and would seem to indicate that the bird does 
not especially seek for these beetles but simply eats such as fall in its way. 
True bugs are eaten with fair regularity by this bird throughout the year, averaging 
3 per cent of the food of the season. The greater number are of the family of stink- 
bugs, some of whose members are familiar (by taste) to many who have eaten 
raspberries from the vines; these will wonder at the taste of a bird that can habitually 
eat such highly seasoned food. Three specimens of the notorious chinch bug were 
found, and it is gratifying to know that the meadowlark will eat this insect which 
has done millions of dollars damage in this country. 
Caterpillars, or the larvse of butterflies and moths, form a very considerable portion 
(nearly 13 per cent) of the food of the meadowlark, but, as with most other birds, the 
adults are rarely eaten, only 3 small moths having been found in as many of the 890 
stomachs. Caterpillars were found in every month, and even the stomachs taken 
in December show over 2 per cent. The maximum (28 per cent) is attained in May. 
Spiders and myriapods (thousand-legs) are eaten freely, and aggregate nearly 3 per 
cent of the food. Other insects eaten include flies, found in a few stomachs; a 
dragonfly in one; an earwig in one; and a common cattle tick in one. Snails or 
fragments of their shells were found in seven stomachs, sowbugs in two, a small 
crustacean in one, and the bones of small frogs or toads in three. These last were 
from stomachs taken in Florida and do not seem to be a favorite food. 
The vegetable food of the meadowlark comprises 21.88 per cent of the total, and 
may be roughly divided into fruit, grain, and weed seed. Fruit is mostly of wild 
species and amounts to less than 2 per cent. Grain of three kinds—corn (the 
favorite), wheat, and oats—constitutes a little less than 9 per cent, and was mostly 
taken in winter, showing conclusively that it was waste. No sprouting grain was 
found. Weed seeds, chiefly ragweed, barngrass, smartweed, sorrel, mustard, 
amaranth, and gromwell (about 7 per cent), like the grain, were mostly eaten in 
winter. In the analysis of the stomach contents clover seed was especially looked 
for, as the meadowlark has been accused of eating this to an injurious extent, but it 
was found in only six stomachs and only a few seeds in each—some with only one. 
Stomach analysis does not indicate that grain is preferred to other seeds. The quan¬ 
tity of each taken is practically the same and in such a grain-raising country as this 
it can not be urged that this food is less easily obtained than the seeds of weeds. 
When meadowlarks collect in flocks, as they sometimes do, they may do some dam¬ 
age to grain, but at the time of the harvest of wheat and oats they are not thus con¬ 
gregated, and the stomach records show that at that season practically none of these 
grains were found, it being the time when insects were most abundant and consti¬ 
tuted nearly the whole food. 
Unfortunately for the meadowlark, its body is plump and its flesh well flavored, 
and as it is easily killed the temptation is too great for some persons to resist. But it 
is most emphatically a case of “killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.” The 
small portion of food that the creature’s body yields is as nothing compared with 
the good the bird does when alive. The tendency to treat the meadowlark as a 
game bird is far too general, and every farmer on whose land it is found should 
rigidly protect it and allow it to breed undisturbed. When its numbers have so far 
increased as to render it dangerous to crops will be soon enough to begin the 
thinning-out process, but that, day is still far distant in most parts of the country. — 
F. E. L. B. 
