. Beginners' Zoology . sum-mer, and are fed the young inimmense quantities. Rice-bird,—The annual loss to ricegrowers on account of bobolinks hasbeen estimated at $2,000,000. Meadow Lark. — Next to grasshop-pers, beetles make up the most impor-tant item of the meadow larks food,amounting to nearly 21 per is the month when the dreadedcut worm begins its deadly career, andthen the lark does some of its bestwork. Most of these caterpillars areground feeders, and are overlookedby birds which habitually frequenttrees, but the meadow lark finds anddevours them by — E
. Beginners' Zoology . sum-mer, and are fed the young inimmense quantities. Rice-bird,—The annual loss to ricegrowers on account of bobolinks hasbeen estimated at $2,000,000. Meadow Lark. — Next to grasshop-pers, beetles make up the most impor-tant item of the meadow larks food,amounting to nearly 21 per is the month when the dreadedcut worm begins its deadly career, andthen the lark does some of its bestwork. Most of these caterpillars areground feeders, and are overlookedby birds which habitually frequenttrees, but the meadow lark finds anddevours them by — Examination of many stomachs shows that inwinter the tree sparrow feeds entirely upon seeds of each bird consumes about one fourth of an ounce aday. Farther south the tree sparrow is replaced in winter by thewhite-throated sparrow, the white-crowned sparrow, the fox spar-row, tlie song sparrow, the field sparrow, and several others; sothat all over the land a vast number of these seed eaters are at. Fig. 331. — Umbrella holdingthe nests of social weaverbird of Africa; polygamous. BIRDS 183 work during the colder months reducing next years crop of worsethan useless plants. Robin.—An examination of 500 stomachs shows that over42 per cent of its food is animal matter, principally insects,while the remainder is made up largely of small fruits orberries. Vegetable food forms nearly 58 per cent of the stom-ach contents, over 47 per cent being wild fruits, and only alittle more than 4 per cent being possibly cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent was foundin the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in fruit, on the contrary, is eaten in everymonth, and constitutes during half the year astaple food. Questions. — Which of these birds are com-mon in your neighbourhood? Which of themaccording to the foregoing report are plainly inju-rious? Clearly beneficial? Doubtful? Whichare great destroyersof weed seeds? ....-
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