The Horned Larks and Their Relation to Agriculture . en three or four earthworms. Frag-ments of hundred-legs and thousand-legs were found in a few mite was found among some algae picked up by one of the birds. Several larks which were shot on beaches hadgathered a few -mall periwinkles, but whetherthese were taken for food or a- an aid in grind-ing food i- a question. Bit- of oyster, mus-sel, and crab shell were probably taken forthe latter purpose. One or two -nails alsoWere eaten. So far a- it- animal diet i- concerned, thehorned lark is exceedingly beneficial. It consumes more or
The Horned Larks and Their Relation to Agriculture . en three or four earthworms. Frag-ments of hundred-legs and thousand-legs were found in a few mite was found among some algae picked up by one of the birds. Several larks which were shot on beaches hadgathered a few -mall periwinkles, but whetherthese were taken for food or a- an aid in grind-ing food i- a question. Bit- of oyster, mus-sel, and crab shell were probably taken forthe latter purpose. One or two -nails alsoWere eaten. So far a- it- animal diet i- concerned, thehorned lark is exceedingly beneficial. It consumes more or less animal matter in everymonth of the year, and from May to Augustnearly one-half it> food is of animal nature,chiefly insects. These consist Largely ^\ spe-cies which if unchecked would soon renderFeedingas it doeson the ground in the midstof the crop- which the insects threaten to destroy, the horned lark i-one of the mo-t efficient natural checks upon their numbers, and it isdifficult to overestimate the value of the service thu- 10.—Chinch bugBureau >>i Entomology. agriculture impossible. 28 BORNED LABKfi IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. MINERAL MAIIKK. Horned larks use a very large amount of gravel to assist in grindingtheir food, and. strange as it may seem, nestlings have more of it. intheir stomachs than adult-. Five stomachs of nestlings which con-tained no food material except of an animal nature held an average of2] percent of gravel. Now. it has been supposed, since granivorousbirds usually eat much gravel, and since exclusively insectivorousbirds, such as cuckoos, take almost none, that its function i» the crush-ing and grinding of seeds to aid in their digestion. Hut why the thin-walled stomach of fledglings which are fed almost exclusively on softanimal foods should contain 80 much gravel is a question for which nosatisfactory answer has yet been found. The percentage for the nest-lings is , for the adults and for the birds in
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