354 hitllp:tin 5o, united states national museum. 



Medium-sized terrestrial leteridie with long, slender, bill, short tail 

 with pointed rectrice.s, and long legs and toes, the plumage much 

 streaked and ])arred above, more or less yellow beneath, the lateral 

 rectriees partly' white. 



Bill about as long as head (or slightly shorter or longer), narrowly 

 wedge-shaped, acute and depressed at tip, its basal depth about one- 

 third the culmen or a little more, its basal depth slightly less; culmen 

 nearly straight, ))ut faintly convex terminally, straight or slightly 

 depressed in middle, more or less elevated and arched basally, flat- 

 tened, especially l)etwcen the frontal antiw, where distinctly ridged lat- 

 erally; gon3^s straight, or slightly concave terminally, slightly shorter 

 than maxilla from nostril; commissure nearly or quite straight to 

 much behind nostril, then strongly and rather abruptly deflexed to 

 the rictus. Nostril ovate, obtusely pointed anteriorly, overhung by 

 a prominent thick horny operculum, its posterior end in contact with 

 feathering of the frontal antire'. Wing moderate or rather short 

 (about three to three and a half times as long as culmen, about two 

 and a half to nearly three times as long as tarsus), its tip rather 

 short (less than length of culmen) but pointed; outermost (.ninth) pri- 

 mary equal to or longer than sixth, rarel}" slightlj^ shorter, sometimes 

 longest, the ninth to the sixth longest (these nearly equal); inner web 

 of four outer primaries faintly sinuated; longest tertial projecting 

 decidedh' beyond secondaries. Tail short (between two-thirds and 

 three-fourths as long as wing), rounded, the rectrices rigid, narrowed 

 terminally, the two or three middle pairs pointed and more or less 

 acuminate. Tarsus long (much longer than culmen, nearl}' or quite 

 one-third as long as wing), rather stout, its anterior scutella distinct; 

 middle toe, with claw, decidedly shorter than tarsus; outer toe with 

 claw falling much short of base of middle claw; the inner toe slighth' 

 longer, but its claw still not reaching to base of middle claw; hallux 

 longer than lateral toos, slender, its claw decidedly shorter than the 

 digit; all the claws rather slender, not ver}" strongly curved. 



Coloration. — Above brownish, conspicuously streaked and barred 

 with 1)lackisli; under parts with more or less of yellow, the sides, 

 flanks, and under tail-coverts streaked with dusky; lateral rectrices 

 partlj^ white; adults with a black shield-shaped or crescentic patch on 

 chest. 



Range. — Temperate and tropical North America; South America 

 north of Amazon Valley; Cuba. (Three species.) 



Examination of a ver}' large series of meadowlarks from that portion 

 of the United States east of the Great Plains, representing prac- 

 tically all parts of that extensive region, reveals a very decided varia- 

 tion in size and coloration according to climatic areas, specimens from 

 the extreme South ])eing decidedly smaller, in all their measurements, 

 and darker in color than those from northern localities. The change 

 is such a gradual one, however, that the satisfactory deflnition of two 



