ICTERID.E — STURNELLIN.E : MEADOW STARLINGS. 



473 



bars. Western U. S. and British Provinces; N. to Manitoba, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Al- 

 berta, and British Columbia, chicHy in southern portions (jf these provinces; E. regularly to the 

 edge of the Great Plains, as in both Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas 

 thence less regularly or more sparingly iu Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois* 

 S. in Lower California and st)me parts of Mexico ; in the Upi)er Mississippi valley at large 



Meadow Lark. 



preserving its own characteristics, though there often associated with marina proper. The gen- 

 eral habits are the same as those of the eastern bird ; but the appeai'ance in life is quite differ- 

 ent, and the peculiarities of the song are attested by numberless hearers of tliis tine melody, 

 from tlie time wlien the notes fell on the surprised ears of Audubon, Sprague, Harris, and Bell, 

 in ascending tlie Missouri together in 1843, to the present day. I am a competent witness to 

 these facts, and also to the fact th;it I have never seen a specimen that could not be distin- 

 guished from magna: under which circumstances I do not f(dlow the A. (). V. in reducing 

 nef/lecta to a subspecies of magna. The nest and eggs are indistinguisliable from those of 

 magna, tliougli the average of very extensive series is sliglitly larger, and the average spotting 



