Fig. 11.—Meadow lark.
Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the meadow lark's food, amounting to nearly 21 per cent, of which about one-third are predaceous ground beetles. The others are all harmful species, and when it is considered that the bird feeds exclusively on the ground, it seems remarkable that so few useful ground beetles are eaten. Many of them have a disgusting odor, and possibly this may occasionally save them from destruction by birds, especially when other food is abundant. Caterpillars, too, form a very constant element, and in May constitute over 28 per cent of the whole food. May is the month when the dreaded cutworm begins its deadly career, and then the bird does some of its best work. Most of these caterpillars are ground feeders, and are overlooked by birds which habitually frequent trees; but the meadow lark finds them and devours them by thousands. The remainder of the insect food is made up of a few ants, wasps, and spiders, with a few bugs, including some cinch bugs.
The vegetable food consists of grain, weed, and other hard seeds. Grain in general amounts to 14, and weed and other seeds to 12 per cent. The grain, principally corn, is mostly eaten in winter and early spring, and must be therefore simply waste kernels; only a trifle is consumed in summer and autumn, when it is most plentiful. No trace of sprouting grain was discovered. Clover seed was found in only six stomachs, and but little in each. Seeds of weeds, principally ragweed, barn grass, and smartweed, are eaten from November to April, inclusive, but during the rest of the year are replaced by insects.
Briefly stated, more than half of the meadow lark's food consists of harmful insects; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds or waste grain, and the remainder is made up of useful beetles or neutral insects and spiders. A strong point in the bird's favor is that, although naturally an insect eater, it is able to subsist on vegetable food, and consequently is not forced to migrate in cold weather any farther than is necessary to find ground free from snow. This explains why it remains for the most part in the United States during winter, and moves northward as soon as the snow disappears from its usual haunts.
There is one danger to which the meadow lark is exposed. As its flesh is highly esteemed the bird is often shot for the table, but it is entitled to all possible protection, and to slaughter it for game is the least profitable way to utilize this valuable species.
[THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.]
(Icterus galbula.)