84 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



STURNELLA NEGLECTA NEGLECTA Audubon 



Western Meadowlark 

 HABITS 



I shall never forget the day I first heard the glorious song of the 

 western meadowlark; the impression of it is still clear in my mind, 

 though it was May 30, 1901! It was my first day in North Dakota, 

 and we were driving from Lakota to Stump Lake when we heard the 

 song. I could hardly believe it was a meadowlark singing, so differ- 

 ent were the notes from those we were accustomed to in the east, 

 until I saw the plump bird perched on a telegraph pole, facing the 

 sun, his yellow breast and black cravat gleaming in the clear prairie 

 sunlight. His sweet voice fairly thrilled us and seemed to combine 

 the flutelike quality of the wood thrush with the rich melody of the 

 Baltimore oriole. I have heard it man3^ times since but have never 

 ceased to marvel at it. It seems to be the very spirit of the boundless 

 prairie. 



Audubon (1844) gave this bird the above scientific name, but called 

 it the Missouri meadowlark. He says of its discovery: 



Although the existence of this species was known to the celebrated explorers 

 of the west, Lewis and Clark, during their memorable journey across the Rocky 

 Mountains and to the Pacific; no one has since taken the least notice of it. * * * 



We found this species quite abundant on our voyage up the Missouri, above 

 Fort Croghan, and its curious notes were first noticed by Mr. J. G. Bell, without 

 which in all probability it would have been mistaken for our common species 

 (Sturnella Ludoviciana) . When I first saw them, they were among a number of 

 Yellow-headed Troupials, and their notes so much resembled the cries of these 

 birds, that I took them for the notes of the Troupial, and paid no further attention 

 to them, until I found some of them by themselves, when I was struck with the 

 difference actually existing between the two nearly allied species. 



During the latter part of the last century considerable discussion 

 arose among leading ornithologists as to its status as a full species, 

 a subject fully covered by Widmann (1907). As a result, this bird 

 in the first two editions of the A. O. U. Check-List stood as a subspecies 

 of S. magna, and it was not until the third edition (1910) that it was 

 restored to full specific status. There is a striking resemblance in 

 the general appearance of the two species; intergradation has been 

 claimed, but probably no more than might be accounted for by hy- 

 bridizing. But the songs of the two are strikingly different; and, 

 where the ranges of the two come together and even overlap, typical 

 birds, with typical songs are sometimes found breeding in the same 

 region, a condition not supposed to occur with subspecies. 



The western meadowlark is widely distributed in all suitable regions 

 throughout western North America, from southern Canada to northern 



