4ij6 J- A. ALLEN ON BIRDS 



37. Spizella soeiaUs Bon. Chipping Sparrow. Not common nor generally diffused. Ob- 

 served but a few times, and always about the settlements. Will doubtless multiply rapidly 

 with the increase of cultivated trees and shrubbery, incident to the rapidly increasing 

 population. 



38. Melospiza melodia Bd. Seng Sparrow. Not common. Scarcely observed during the 

 summer ; seen near Redfield in September, along the fences of cultivated fields, in consider- 

 able numbers. The comparative scarcity of this species was particularly noticed in other 

 localities at the West. (See the following list.) 



39. Euspiza americana Bon. Black-throated Sparrow. One of the most abundant birds 

 of this section. Eminently a prairie species, and one of the few inhabitants of the wide 

 open stretches. 



40. Hedymeles ludoviciana Cab. (Guiraca ladoviciana Sw.) Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Fre- 

 quent in the groves along the streams. 



41. Pipilo erythrophthalmus Vieill. Towhe. Common about the timber, and often seen in 

 its thickest parts. 



Alaudid.e. 



42. Eremophila alpestris. (E. cornida Boie.) Horned Lark. Common on the prairies every- 

 where, where it is one of the most conspicuous and characteristic birds. 



ICTERID.E. 



43. Dolichonyx oryzivorus Sw. Bobolink. Not generally diffused. Seen at intervals, gen- 

 erally few in numbers, and chiefly late in the season. Seen at New Jefferson as late as 

 September 22d, — much later than I ever observed it in Massachusetts. 



44. Mobthrus pecoris Sw. Cow Bird. Not numerous. Its relative scarcity is no doubt 

 the result of the fewness of the small birds, on which, as foster-parents, its existence de- 

 pends. Here, sometimes at least (see ante), it is reared by the Brown Thrush, a bird 

 larger than itself, and a larger species than I ever knew it to select for foster-parent at the 

 East. 



45. Agelceus phceniceus Vieill. Red-winged Blackbird. Common. Extremely abundant in 

 the cultivated districts after the breeding season, resorting then, in company with the Purple 

 Grakle ( Qniscalus versicolor Vieill.) first to the wheat-fields and later to the fields of corn. 



4G. Xanihocephalus icterocephalus Bon. Yellow-headed Blackbird. A few were seen the 

 first week in July, about the grassy ponds near Boonesboro. Said to breed in great numbers 

 to the northwards and eastwards, in the grassy marshes of the Skunk River country. 



47. Sturnetta magna Sw. {Sturnetta negleda And.) Meadow Lark. Very abundant; one 

 of the most numerous and conspicuous of the prairie birds. Very different from the eastern 

 Meadow Lark in its song, but scarcely presents other tangible differences. a At the little 



l "As a general rule where the dark brown in S. maijna (Vol. IX. P. R. R. Reports), p. 537. — There is a specimen 

 margins the^shaft of the feather and sends off angular denta- of S. magna, from Massachusetts, in the Museum of Compar- 

 tions towards the exterior, in S. negleda it is thrown into sep- ative Zoology, in which the transverse markings of the " ter- 

 arate narrow transverse bands going entirely across, and not tials " (inner secondaries), and middle tail feathers are as dis- 

 connected bv brown along the shafts. This is most particu- tinct as in the most typical specimens of 5. " neglecta." Among 

 larly the case on the outer webs of the tertials and of the my Iowa specimens there are again specimens with these bars 

 middle tail'feathers, and to a less marked extent on the inner as much united as is ordinarily the case with S. magna in the 

 webs." Prof. S. F. Baird, Gen. Rep. on North Am. Birds, Atlantic States. There are also specimens from the far west, 



