THE WESTERN MEADOWLARK. 63 



No. 22. 



WESTERN MEADOWLARK. 



A. O. U. No. 501. 1. Sturnella neglecta Audubon. 



Synonyms. — Field Lark. Old-fiklu L.ark. Medl.^rk. Medlar (poeti- 

 cal). AIiDLARK (corruption). 



Description. — .Idiilt iiiair: General color of upperparts brownish black 

 niodilied by much tawny and butiy-gray edgings of the feathers which throw the 

 black into stripes and bars with suggestion of herring-bone pattern ; the tawny 

 heaviest on secondaries and upper tail-feathers where taking the form of partial 

 bands, a median crown stripe and posterior portion of superciliary sordid white 

 or bufty; anterior portion of superciliary, cheeks, chin, upper throat, breast 

 (broadly) and middle belly rich lemon yellow (inclining to orange in older 

 specimens); a large black crescent on upper lireast ; sides and flanks black- 

 streaked and spotted with pale brown on a bufly or whitish ground. Bill 

 variegated, tawny, black and white. Fciinilc: Like male l)Ut smaller and paler 

 with some substitutions of brown for black in streakmg; black of jugulum veiled 

 by grayish tips of feathers ; yellow of breast duller, etc. The plumage of both 

 sexes is duller in fall and winter, the normal colors being restrained by butify 

 overlay. Length (if adult male: 10. 00-11.00 (254-279.4); wing 4.85 ( 123.2); 

 tail 3.00 (76.2) : bill 1.30 {TiT,) : tarsus 1.46 (37.1). Female smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; yellow breast with black collar distinctive; 

 general streak\- appearance above; yellow cheeks as distinguished from the 

 Eastern .Meadowlark (StiiiiicHa iimi/iia). 



Nesting. — Xcst: on the ground in thick grass or weeds; a slight depression 

 lined (carefnll}- or not) and usually overarched with dried grasses. Eggs: 4-6, 

 white, speckled and spotted, sometimes very sparingly, with cinnamon brown or 

 purplish; very variable in shape, elliptical ovate to almost round. Av. size, I.i2x 

 .80 (28.5x20.3). Season: April and June; two broods. Tacoma, April 5, 1906, 

 4 fresh eggs. 



General Range. — Western United States, southwestern British Provinces, and 

 northwestern Mexico, east to prairie districts of Mississippi A'alley, Minnesota, 

 Iowa, Missouri, etc., occasionally to Illinois and ]\Iichigan ; breeding thruout its 

 range. 



Range in Washington. — Abundant east and west of the Cascades; largely 

 resident on the West-side, partially on the East-side ; numbers augmented from 

 the south during last week in February. 



Authorities. — [Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814), Ed. Biddle : Coues. 

 Vol II. p. 186.] Sturnella neglecta Aud., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 

 539. T. C&S. L-'. Rh. D'. Sr. Ra. D-'. Ss'. Ss-'. Kk. B. E. 



Specimens.— d'. of W.) Prov. B. E. BN. P'. 



SUMAIER silences the birds so gradually and we ourselves have become 

 so much absorbed in business during tlie prosy clays of September that we 



