BIRDS OF KANSAS. 401 



fore general favorites. They are very hardy, wintering from 

 the Middle States southward, and the earliest of our spring 

 songsters. Mounted upon a fence post, bush or knoll, they 

 repeat at intervals their whistling notes, not varied but pleasing, 

 and expressive of tenderness and joy. Their flights are rather 

 laborious, an alternate changing from a rapid vibration of the 

 wings to sailing; terrestrial birds, that, during the breeding 

 season, remain in pairs, but are afterwards usually met with in 

 small flocks or family groups. 



Their nests are placed on the ground, in a thick tuft of grass, 

 composed of grasses, which are often interwoven so as to form 

 a cover overhead. Eggs four to six, l.lOx.80; white, finely 

 spotted with lilac and reddish brown; in form, oval. 



Sturnella magna neglecta (Aud.). 



WESTERN MEADOWLARK, 

 PLATE XXV. 



Resident; common in the western and middle portiojis of the 

 State; rare in the eastern. Begin laying about the middle of 

 May. 



B. 407. K. 264. C. 332. G. 134, 194. U. 5015. 



Habitat. Western North America, from Nebraska and Texas 

 (casually Wisconsin and Illinois) west to the Pacific coast; north 

 to British Columbia and Manitoba; south through western 

 Mexico. 



Sp. Char. "Feathers above dark brown, margined with brownisli white, 

 with a terminal blotch of pale reddish brown; exposed portion of wings and 

 tail with transverse bands, which in the latter are completely Isolated from 

 each other, narrow and linear; beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent. 

 The yellow of the throat extending on the sides of the maxilla; sides, crissnm 

 and tibia very pale reddish brown, or nearly white, streaked with blackish; 

 head with a light median and superciliary stripe, the latter yellow in front of 

 the eye; a blackish line behind it; the transverse bars on the feathers above 

 (less so on the tail) with a tendency to become confluent near the exterior 

 margin." 



Iris brown; bill dark olive brown, with edges of upper and 

 base of lower pale bluish; legs and feet bluish flesh color, joints 

 darker; claws brown. 



