56 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



in areas left by the first wave of migrants, or carve their territories 

 from the domains of earlier males unable to defend their original 

 holdings. The migrants remaining in flocks resume their journey 

 northward. 



The vanguard of migrant females arrives 2 weeks or more after the 

 first resident males and are followed closely by the first resident 

 females. The coming of the resident females stimulates the first song 

 peak of the males, whose songs become longer and more brilliant and 

 animated. They engage in territorial combats over females, in 

 defense displays and sexual flights, as well as posturing and sexual 

 displays for the benefit of the female. The female is at a much 

 lower sexual pitch at this time and responds only by preliminary 

 stages of posturing such as the erection of the body to a vertical 

 position, pointing her bill upward and twitching her wings. Late in 

 April she reaches the necessary sexual level and begins building the 

 nest and laying the eggs. 



Other migrant and resident females, which are young birds, con- 

 tinue to come in April and May and even in June and July. These 

 birds, which are late in maturing, become mates of polygamous or 

 late arriving males, or remain unmated. 



The following accounts of territory and courtship are based pri- 

 marily on an exhaustive treatment of the subject contained in an 

 unpublished thesis, submitted at Cornell University in 1932 by 

 George Bradford Saunders ("A Taxonomic Revision of the Meadow- 

 larks of the Genus Stumella Vieiilot and the Natural Histoiy of the 

 Eastern Meadowlark Stumella Magna Magna Linnaeus"). 



Territory. — Soon after his arrival during the latter part of March, 

 the resident male leaves his companions and selects a territory, 

 preferably a grassland or meadow, because of the great abundance of 

 food as well as his decided liking for this type of habitat. The size 

 and shape of the territory depend chiefly on the area of suitable land 

 available, the local abundance and strength of competing males, the 

 relative concentration of food supply, and certain barriers and indi- 

 vidual range requirements of the male. The size of the territory 

 may be increased as a result of polygamous relations, particularly 

 if the females choose widely separated nesting sites, but the average 

 size of 15 territories at Ithaca, N. Y., was found to be 7 acres. There 

 is a decided difference between the total area of the territory and that 

 which is regularly used. The more concentrated the food supply 

 the less need there is for foraging, and the smaller the area fre- 

 quented. Of two territories studied by G. B. Saunders (MS., see 

 above) throughout the breeding season of 1931, one contained 9 

 and the other 20 acres; but due to the abundance of food in a meadow 

 separating the two families, one monogamous and the other with 



