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 were 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, pupæ, 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 pupæ and larvæ 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 pupal 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 eastern meadowlark[39] ([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,[40] 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 undulating land covered with grass or weeds, with plenty of water at hand.
[39] Sturnella magna.
[40] Sturnella neglecta.