94 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



his claim and held it with a high hand. In many other 

 places in Oklahoma and Kansas where both species 

 dwell, I have noticed the same interesting fact — that 

 in the breeding season each form selects a special pre- 

 cinct, into which the other form does not intrude. 

 They perhaps put up some kind of trespass sign. 

 These observations have all but convinced me that »S'. 

 magna and S. neglecta are distinct species, and avoid 

 getting mixed up in their family affairs. 



Nor is that all. While both forms dwell on the vast 

 prairies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, yet, as you 

 travel eastward, the western larks gradually diminish 

 in number until at length they entirely disappear; 

 whereas, if you journey westward, the precise opposite 

 occurs. I have never heard neglecta east of the Mis- 

 souri River,^ nor magna on the plains of Colorado. 

 Therefore the conclusion is almost forced upon the 

 observer that there are structural and organic differences 

 between the two forms. 



After the foregoing deductions had been reached, the 

 writer bethought him of consulting Ridgway"'s Man- 

 ual on the subject, and was gratified to find his views 



1 He sometimes ventures, though sparingly, as far east as Illinois 

 and Wisconsin ; still my statement is true — I have never heard 

 the western lark even in the bottoms and meadows of the broad 

 valley east of the Missouri River, while, one spring morning, I did 

 hear one of these birds fluting in the top of a Cottonwood tree in 

 my yard on the high western bluff of that stream. 



