. Bulletin - Biological Survey. Zoology, Economic. FOOD OF YOUNG HORNED LARKS. 29. Fig. 11—Greater strip- ed flea-beetle (Diso- nycha caroliniana). (Three times nat- ural size.) of the greater striped flea-beetle (Disonycha caroliniana) (fig. 11), a foliage-feeding species. The most important element of the animal food, however, was grasshoppers {Acridiiddd). These comprised percent of all the food, and no less than 99 percent of the contents of one of the stomachs. Grasshoppers are a favorite diet for the nestlings of many birds, and sometimes are fed to them almost to the total exclusio
. Bulletin - Biological Survey. Zoology, Economic. FOOD OF YOUNG HORNED LARKS. 29. Fig. 11—Greater strip- ed flea-beetle (Diso- nycha caroliniana). (Three times nat- ural size.) of the greater striped flea-beetle (Disonycha caroliniana) (fig. 11), a foliage-feeding species. The most important element of the animal food, however, was grasshoppers {Acridiiddd). These comprised percent of all the food, and no less than 99 percent of the contents of one of the stomachs. Grasshoppers are a favorite diet for the nestlings of many birds, and sometimes are fed to them almost to the total exclusion of other foods. Prof. Samuel Aughey, in Nebraska, during the month of Ma}^, found the horned larks feeding almost wholly upon young grasshoppers, great numbers of which they were carrying to their nestlings. The stomach of one lark was found to contain 12 locusts and 33 small Other animal matter fed to the nestlings examined by the writer consisted of chrysalids of leaf-mining moths (Tineidae), leaf bugs (Ccvpsidae), spiders, ant-lions (Myrmeleonidse), thirteen of which formed 60 percent of the contents of one stomach, and centi- pedes (Ohilopoda). In the nestling state, therefore, horned larks are almost entirely beneficial, and the number of insect pests they consume is very great. Adults have been seen to carry food to the nest twenty times in an hour, and they continue their visits throughout the day for a week or more; and it is to be remembered that this species raises two or three broods in a year. thus destroys a host of insects, and the quantity consumed by the birds throughout North America is almost beyond computation. As our exam- inations show that weevils and grasshoppers compose the great bulk of the insect food of the nestlings, their economic value can hardly be overestimated. Concerning the fully fledged young, Professor Barrows noted that they eat less animal matter than the adults, a conclusion confirmed by exami- nation of the more a
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