The eastern meadowlark[39] (fig. 13) is a common and well-known bird
occurring from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains, where it gives
way to the closely related western species,[40] which extends thence
westward to the Pacific. It winters from our southern border as far north
as the District of Columbia, southern Illinois, and occasionally Iowa.
The western, form winters somewhat farther north. Although it is a bird
of the plains, and finds its most congenial haunts in the prairies of the
West, it is at home wherever there is level or undulating land covered
with grass or weeds, with plenty of water at hand.
[39] _Sturnella magna_.
[40] _Sturnella neglecta_.
In the 1,514 stomachs examined, animal food (practically all insects)
constituted 74 per cent of the contents and vegetable matter 26 per cent.
As would naturally be supposed, the insects were ground species, as
beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, with a few flies, wasps,
and spiders. A number of the stomachs were collected when the ground
was covered with snow, but even these contained a large percentage of
insects, showing the bird's skill in finding proper food under adverse
circumstances.
Of the various insects eaten, crickets and grasshoppers are the most
important, constituting 26 per cent of the food of the year and 72 per
cent of the food in August. It is scarcely necessary to mention the
beneficial effect of a number of these birds on a field of grass in the
height of the grasshopper season. Of the 1,514 stomachs collected at
all seasons of the year, 778, or more than half, contained remains of
grasshoppers, and one was filled with fragments of 37 of these insects.
This seems to show conclusively that grasshoppers are preferred, and
are eaten whenever they can be found. Especially notable is the great
number taken in August, the month when grasshoppers reach their maximum
abundance; stomach examination shows that large numbers of birds resort
at this time to this diet, no matter what may be the food during the rest
of the year.
Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the
meadowlark's food, amounting to 25 per cent, about one-half of which are
predacious ground beetles. The others are all harmful species.
Forty-two individuals of different kinds of May beetles were found in
the stomachs of meadowlarks, and there were probably many more which
were past recognition. To this form and several closely allied ones
belong the numerous white grubs, which are among the worst enemies to
many cultivated crops, notably grasses and grains, and to a less extent
strawberries and garden vegetables. In the larval stage they eat the
roots of these plants, and being large, one individual may destroy
several plants. In the adult stage they feed upon the foliage of trees
and other plants, and in this way add to the damage which they began in
the earlier form. As these enemies of husbandry are not easily destroyed
by man, it is obviously wise to encourage their natural foes.
Among the weevils found in the stomachs the most important economically
are the cotton-boll weevil and the recently introduced alfalfa weevil
of Utah. Several hundred meadowlarks were taken in the cotton-growing
region, and the boll weevil was found in 25 stomachs of the eastern
meadowlark and in 16 of the western species. Of the former, one stomach
contained 27 individuals. Of 25 stomachs of western meadowlarks taken in
alfalfa fields of Utah, 15 contained the alfalfa weevil. In one stomach
23 adults were found, in another 32 adults and 70 larvæ, still another
had 10 adults and 40 larvæ, and a fourth had 4 adults and 100 larvæ.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Meadowlark. Length, about 10 inches.]
Caterpillars form a very constant element of the food, and in May
constitute over 24 per cent of the whole. May is the month when the
dreaded cutworm begins Its deadly career, and then the lark does some of
its best work. Most of these caterpillars are ground feeders, and are
overlooked by birds which habitually frequent trees, but the meadowlark
finds and devours them by thousands. The remainder of the insect food is
made up of ants, wasps, and spiders, with some bugs, including chinch
bugs, and a few scales.
The vegetable food consists of grain and weed and other hard seeds. Grain
in general amounts to 11 per cent and weed and other seeds to 7 per cent.
Grain, principally corn, is eaten mostly in winter and early spring
and consists, therefore, of waste kernels; only a trifle is consumed
in summer and autumn, when it is most plentiful. No trace of sprouting
grain was discovered. Glover seed was found in only six stomachs, and but
little in each. Seeds of weeds, principally ragweed, barnyard grass, and
smartweed, are eaten from November to April, inclusive, but during the
rest of the year are replaced by insects.
Briefly stated, more than half of the meadowlark's food consists of
harmful insects; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds
or waste grain; and the remainder is made up of useful beetles or
neutral insects and spiders. A strong point in the bird's favor is that,
although naturally an insect eater, it is able to subsist on vegetable
food, and consequently is not forced to migrate in cold weather farther
than is necessary to find ground free from snow.