14 
FARMERS* BULLETIN 630. 
BULLOCK ORIOLE. 
The Bullock oriole 1 is practically a counterpart of the Baltimore oriole, taking 
the place of that species west of the Plains and throughout the Pacific coast 
region. It does not essentially differ in its habits of nesting or in its food from 
its eastern relative, but it is less beautiful in plumage. The examination of 
162 stomachs shows that 79 per cent of its food consists of insects, with a few 
spiders, a lizard, a mollusk shell, and eggshells. Beetles amounted to 35 per 
cent, and all except a few ladybugs were harmful species. Ants were found in 
19 stomachs, and in one there was nothing else. Bees, wasps, etc., were in 56 
stomachs, and entirely filled 2 of them. Including the ants, they amount to 
nearly 15 per cent of the food of the season. 
One of the most interesting articles of food in the oriole’s dietary was the 
black olive scale, found in 45 stomachs, and amounting to 5 per cent of the 
food. In several cases these scales formed 80 per cent or more of the contents, 
and in one, 30 individual scales could be counted. They were evidently a 
standard article of diet, and w r ere eaten regularly in every month of the 
oriole’s stay except April. Hemipterous insects other than scales, eaten quite 
regularly, make up a little more than 5 per cent of the food. They were mostly 
stinkbugs, leaf hoppers, and tree hoppers. Plant lice were found in one stomach. 
Moths, pupae, and caterpillars compose the largest item of the oriole’s animal 
food. The average consumption during its summer stay is a little more than 
41 per cent. Of these, perhaps the most interesting were the pupae and larvae 
of the codling moth. These were found in 23 stomachs, showing that they 
are not an unusual article of diet. No less than 14 of the pupa cases were found 
in one stomach, and as they are very fragile many others may have been present, 
but broken beyond recognition. 
Grasshoppers probably do not come much in the oriole’s way. They were 
eaten, however, to the extent of a little more than 3 per cent. But in spite 
of the fact that grasshoppers are eaten so sparingly, 2 stomachs, both taken in 
June, contained nothing else, and another contained 97 per cent of them. 
Various insects and spiders, with a few other items, make up the rest of the 
animal food, a little more than 5 per cent. Spiders are not important in the 
oriole’s food, but are probably eaten whenever found. They were identified in 
44 stomachs, but in small numbers. The scales of a lizard were found in one 
stomach and the shell of a snail in another. 
The vegetable contingent of the oriole’s food is mostly fruit, especially in 
June and July, when it takes kindly to cherries and apricots, and sometimes 
eats more than the fruit grower considers a fair share. However, no great 
complaint is made against the bird, and it is probable that as a rule it does 
not do serious harm. With such a good record as an insect eater it can well 
be spared a few cherries. 
THE MEADOWLARKS. 
The eastern meadowlark * (fig. 13) is a common and well-known bird occurring 
from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains, where it gives way to the closely 
related western species, 3 which extends thence westward to the Pacific. It 
winters from our southern border as far north as the District of Columbia, 
southern Illinois, and occasionally Iowa. The western form winters somewhat 
farther north. Although it is a bird of the plains, and finds its most congenial 
haunts in the prairies of the West, it is at home wherever there is level or un¬ 
dulating land covered with grass or weeds, with plenty of ^vater at hand. 
In the 1,514 stomachs examined, animal food (practically all insects) consti¬ 
tuted 74 per cent of the contents and vegetable matter 26 per cent. As would 
naturally be supposed, the insects were ground species, as beetles, bugs, grass¬ 
hoppers, .and caterpillers, with a few flies, wasps, and spiders. A number of the 
stomachs were collected when the ground was covered with snow, but even these 
contained a large percentage of insects, showing the bird’s skill in finding 
proper food under adverse circumstances. 
Of the various insects eaten, crickets and grasshoppers are the most im¬ 
portant, constituting 26 per cent of the food of the year and 72 per cent of the 
food in August. It is scarcely necessary to mention the beneficial effect of a 
number of these birds on a field of grass in the height of the grasshopper sea¬ 
son. Of the 1,514 stomachs collected at all seasons of the year, 77S, or more 
1 Icterus ftulloclci. 
2 Sturnclla magna. 
3 Sturnella neglccta. 
