. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . orth of rice isannually destroyed. The number of birds slain is beyondreckoning. In spite of the enormous drain upon their numbers, theflocks seem as numerous as ever. It is probable, however,that they are actually decreasing. It does not seem possiblethat the immense numbers annually slain in the South can bemade good. Then, in Ncav Hampshire, at least, farmers past THE ORTOLES. BLACKBIRDS. TROWS. A.\l> .lAV ]C:. middle asj;e state that bobolinks are not nearly so coiiinion inthe fields a
. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . orth of rice isannually destroyed. The number of birds slain is beyondreckoning. In spite of the enormous drain upon their numbers, theflocks seem as numerous as ever. It is probable, however,that they are actually decreasing. It does not seem possiblethat the immense numbers annually slain in the South can bemade good. Then, in Ncav Hampshire, at least, farmers past THE ORTOLES. BLACKBIRDS. TROWS. A.\l> .lAV ]C:. middle asj;e state that bobolinks are not nearly so coiiinion inthe fields as they were fifty or sixty years ago. While it maybe that the rice destroyed is worth more than the slaughterof insects, there is no certainty that it is so, though no onecan blame rice-planters for attempting to exterminate thebirds. In any case, those Avho know the bobolink in hisnorthern home can but regard with complaisance the factthat he has a place among tilings that yet exist. The ]\Ieadow-Lark, with its bosom of prairie buttercups,its back hke the dead grass of autumn, and its song Avhich. THE MEADOW-LARK.{After Biological Siirvii/.) harmonizes Avell with the prairie winds, is essentially a birdof tlie prairies. But it is not confined to the prairie States:from New England to Florida, from Florida to Mexico, fromMexico to Oregon, and from Oregon back again to New Eng-land, where there are open stretches of pasture and jiieadowlands, one is likely to lind the eastern meadow-lark or itswestern representative. In northern localities it dwells onlyin summer, migrating southward for the winter, ])ut in manyCentral States it remains throughout the year, lis nest isbuilt on the ground in a clunip of grass and four or liveyoung are reared. 166 HIRDS L\ THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. The record of the food of the meadow-lark is unusuallyfull and complete. The stomach contents of nniety-threespecimens from seven widely separated States (New York,Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1916
