. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. MEADOW LARK AND BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 421 In the laboratory investigation of the food of the meadow lark, 238 stomachs were examined; these were collected in 24 States, the Dis- trict of Columbia, and Canada, and represent every month in the year. A summary of the stomach contents for the whole year is as follows: Insect food, per cent; vegetable food, ; mineral mat- ter, Excluding the mineral element, which is not food, the record stands: Animal matter, 73 per cent; vegetable, 27. In other words, nearly three-fourths of the meadow lark's food
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. MEADOW LARK AND BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 421 In the laboratory investigation of the food of the meadow lark, 238 stomachs were examined; these were collected in 24 States, the Dis- trict of Columbia, and Canada, and represent every month in the year. A summary of the stomach contents for the whole year is as follows: Insect food, per cent; vegetable food, ; mineral mat- ter, Excluding the mineral element, which is not food, the record stands: Animal matter, 73 per cent; vegetable, 27. In other words, nearly three-fourths of the meadow lark's food for the year, including the winter months, consists of insects. In August and September the meadow lark subsists almost exclu- sively on insect food, but this is not surprising, as insects are abund- ant at this season. In March, however, insects are not readily found; yet the meadow lark finds enough to make 73 per cent of its entire food. Similarly in December and January the insect food amounts to 39 and 24 per cent, Pig. 110.—Meadow lark (Sturnella viagna). As an illustration of the meadow lark's vigilance in searching for insects, an instructive lesson may be drawn from the examination of the stomachs of 6 birds killed in Virginia when the ground was cov- ered with snow. The smallest quantity of insect food in any one of the 6 stomachs was 8 per cent of the contents, the largest quantity 95 per cent, and the average for all 6 more than 47 per cent, or nearly half of the total food. The insects consisted of beetles of several species, bugs (Hemiptera), grasshoppers, crickets, a few wasps, cater- pillars, spiders, and myriapods. Thus it is evident that insects form an essential element of the bird's diet, and are obtained even under very adverse circumstances. Of the total insect food of the 238 birds examined, grasshoppers, locusts (green grasshoppers), and crickets constitute by far the most. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page i
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