BOBOLINKS OR REEDBIRDS.

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would be no objection to utilizing the bird for food were it not for the abuse to which this custom of killing it for market has given rise. Not only are other birds killed for reedbirds, but in States in which reedbirds do not occur marketmen try to make up the deficiency by furnishing various small birds under that name. In the markets of San Francisco horned larks (Otocoris), red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius), Brewer's blackbirds (Scolecophagus), white-crowned and golden-crowned

sparrows (Zonotrichia), song sparrows (Melospiza), savanna sparrows (Ammodramus), house finches (Carpodacus), and even goldfinches (Astragalinus), have all been sold as reedbirds.1 Such conditions serve only to defeat the object of protective laws, and for this reason, if for no other, reedbirds should be taken off the game list, except in the few States in which they are known to be abundant; and even here their sale should be carefully regulated to prevent the slaughter of robins, larks, and other birds, which are almost certain to be killed by market hunters.

1 Bryant, Zoe, II, pp. 142-145, 1891.

MEADOWLARKS.

Like the flicker, the meadowlark (Sturnella magna-fig. 5) is considered game by many persons, mainly on account of the character of its meat, which in some respects resembles that of quail. A few States provide an open season for lark shooting, as follows: Mississippi, September 15 to March 1; Missouri, August 1 to January 1; North Carolina, October 15 to April 1; British Columbia, September 1 to March 1; Georgia apparently allows the bird to be killed at any season. Its importance to sportsmen is small in comparison with its value to farmers. Professor Beal, in speaking of its food habits says: "It is one of the most useful allies to agriculture, standing almost without a peer as a destroyer of noxious insects. * *

*

In summing up the record of the meadowlark, two points should be especially noted: (1) The bird is most emphatically an insect eater, evidently preferring insects above all other food; and (2) in default of its favorite food it can subsist on a vegetable diet."1

Professor Beal made an examination of 238 stomachs, and reported that the contents comprised about 27 percent vegetable matter and 73 percent animal matter. In other words, nearly three-fourths of the food of the meadowlark for the year, including the winter months, consists of insects. The vegetable food comprises mainly seeds of weeds, grasses, and a little grain, but the grain, chiefly corn, amounted to only 14 percent. No sprouting corn was found in any stomach, and no grain of any kind was found in stomachs taken in summer; the largest quantity was eaten in January, when other food was scarce.

1 Yearbook Dept. Agr., 1895, pp. 420 and 426.

Among the insects taken at various times during the year, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets are by far the most important, since they averaged 29 percent of the food. Of the 238 stomachs examined, 178 contained grasshoppers, and 37 of these insects were found in a single stomach. In August stomachs they constituted 69 percent of the food. Beetles, which stand next in importance to grasshoppers, included chiefly May beetles (Scarabaeida), snout-beetles or weevils (Rhyncophora), and leaf-beetles (Chrysomelidae). Caterpillars formed an important element of the food, and ants a small, but fairly constant, item, about 3 percent for the year.

In the District of Columbia red-winged, or marsh, blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus-fig. 6) are treated as game birds and an open season for shooting them is set apart. The argument is made that on account of the damage they do to grainfields, particularly in the spring and autumn, blackbirds may be kept from becoming too abundant by treating them as game. But it may well be questioned whether this would reduce their numbers as effectually as if they were excluded entirely from protection in localities where they are injurious. Game birds are necessarily protected for a longer or shorter time during the breeding season, while species excepted from protection may be killed at any season. A full account of the food habits of the various blackbirds may be found in Bulletin No. 13 of the Biological Survey.

ROBINS.

In some sections of the South, particularly in New Orleans, all kinds of small birds, even thrushes, are considered legitimate game, and are offered for sale in the markets. According to Prof. H. Nehrling, "one main cause of the fearful decrease of our small migratory birds must be looked for in our Southern States. There, millions of al kinds of birds are killed to satisfy the palate of the gourmand. * * * There is scarcely a hotel in New Orleans where small birds do not form an item on the bill of fare. At certain seasons the robin, wood thrush, thrasher, olive-backed thrush, hermit thrush, chewink, flicker, and many of our beautiful sparrows form the bulk of these victims; but cat-birds, cardinals, and almost all small birds, even swallows, can

* * *

be found in the markets." Mr. Andrew Allison, of New Orleans, gives similar testimony: "In the fall migrations, when all the migrants are literal butter-balls, appalling numbers of cat-birds, wood thrushes, red-eyed vireos, king birds, tanagers, and in fact any easily-shot birds are killed near the coast towns. Wood thrushes and catbirds are more persecuted than any other, under the name of grassé, and many are sent to the markets here in September and October."1 Robins (Merula migratoria-fig. 7) are perhaps more generally killed than any of the other thrushes, and in some States their killing is legalized at certain seasons-for example, in North Carolina, from October 15 to April 1. A few years ago large numbers of robins were

1See W. T. Hornaday, 2d Ann. Rept. N. Y. Zool. Soc., p. 86, 1898.

INSECTIVOROUS AND SONG BIRDS.

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shipped to the markets of Washington, D. C., from various points in Virginia and North Carolina. In the spring of 1897 no less than 2,700 were received in one lot. These birds were killed near roosts just before the northward migration set in; fortunately their sale could be stopped in the District of Columbia, but their killing at this season was lawful in North Carolina.

It seems hardly necessary to call attention to the insectivorous habits of robins; but a few details may add emphasis. In an examination of 330 stomachs,1 42 percent of the food was found to consist of animal matter, chiefly insects, while the remainder was made up largely of small fruits or berries. Grasshoppers, caterpillars, and beetles composed the principal part of the insect food, grasshoppers forming nearly 30 percent of the total food in the month of August. The vegetable element, 58 percent, was largely composed of wild fruits, which had been eaten in nearly every month. Cultivated fruit was found in small amounts, chiefly in stomachs collected in June and July, but the depredations of the birds seemed to be confined mainly to smaller and earlier fruits, and as Professor Beal has shown, the damage thus done may be obviated by planting wild fruits, which the birds prefer to cultivated varieties.

INSECTIVOROUS AND SONG BIRDS.

An examination of the various State laws shows that definitions of non-game birds accorded protection are in most cases very loose. The matter of definition is a difficult one in view of the fact that the number of birds now recognized in North America is over 1,100, and that the list of even so small a State as Rhode Island (with an area of only about 1,000 square miles) contains no less than 2912 species, while 374 species are known to occur in Colorado3 and 415 in Nebraska.*

Attempts are often made to name the more important birds (as in the case of the Alabama law, which enumerates 50 species), but it is obviously impracticable to name all, and the common practice is to mention a few and to include the others under such general terms as 'insectivorous,' 'song,' or 'useful' birds. Georgia depends entirely on the term 'insectivorous or song birds' and Missouri likewise prohibits the killing of 'any wild song bird or insectivorous bird,' without mentioning species. Other States extend their lists of protected species by the terms 'other harmless birds' (Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), any other of the small birds known as singing birds'

1 Beal, Farmers' Bulletin 54, p. 38, 1897.

2 Howe and Sturtevant, Birds of Rhode Island, 1899. This number does not include the introduced English sparrow.

3 Cooke, Bull. 44, Colo. Agr. Expt. Station, p. 150, 1898.

'Bruner, Some Notes on Nebraska Birds, p. 49, 1896.