COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
19 
Important elements include both the flat-headed and round-headed wood borers, as 
well as numerous weevils, those feeding on pine predominating. Beneficial insects, 
including predacious ground beetles and bugs, and parasitic hymenopterans comprise 
about 9 per cent of the yearly food. The jay’s liking for snails, which furnish an 
ample supply of animal matter at times when insects are scarce, appears to be akin to 
the southern crow’s preference for crawfish. A few batrachians (toads and frogs), 
lizards, and even fish help out when hunting is not at its best. Of the 184 stomachs 
examined only one contained the egg of a small bird; shells of hen’s eggs occurred in 
13 of these, but as the jay is given to rummaging about rubbish piles, the source of 
some of this material may be thus explained. 
A consideration of its vegetable food discloses evidence unfavorable to the southern 
blue jay. Of cultivated fruit and corn he takes considerably less than the northern 
bird, but on the latter food he lays heavy toll just at the time when the grain is in 
the roasting ear and ripening. In fact, in August, corn closely associated with the 
silk torn from the top of the ear was found in II of 15 stomachs, forming over 58 per 
cent of the monthly food. This item was also well represented in stomachs collected 
in July and September. But by far the most popular article of diet of the southern 
Fig. 10.— Meadowlark. Length, about 10} inches. 
jay is mast, which composes nearly 46 per cent of the yearly food, and in January, 
when other food is scarce, runs as high as 84 per cent. Complaints against the bird 
on this score are few as yet, but this liking for mast may lead him into trouble with 
growers of cultivated nuts — pecans, for instance. 
While there may be possibilities of the southern jay becoming troublesome locally, 
at present he can not be considered a serious menace to agriculture. His insectiv¬ 
orous diet during spring and summer, which includes many destructive species, 
more than compensates for the losses inflicted upon cornfields later in the season, 
or upon isolated orchards of cultivated nuts. — e. r. k. 
MEADOWLARK . 1 
The meadowlark (fig. 10) is a familiar bird of grassland throughout the whole 
United States, though less abundant in the Southwest. Alike on eastern meadows, 
western prairies, and southern savannas, its clear pipe may be heard in spring 
i Sturnella magna. 
