The Meadow Lark {Stumella magna magna) 

 Alexander Wilson 



Length: 10^ inches. 



Range: U. S., Southern Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica. 



Food : Caterpillars, grubworms, beetles, grasshoppers, weevils, seeds and 

 cut worms. 



This species has a very extensive range. I have myself found Meadow Larks 

 in upper Canada and in each of the states from New Hampshire to Louisiana. 

 Mr. Bartram informs me that they are equally abundant in east Florida. They 

 live in pastures, fields, and meadows — their fondness for the latter having given 

 them their specific name. The meadows no doubt supply them abundantly with 

 the seeds and insects on which they feed. They are rarely or never seen in the 

 depths of the woods ; unless, instead of underwood, the ground is covered with 

 rich grass, as in the Choctaw and Chickasaw countries, where I met with them 

 frequently in the months of May and June. The extensive and luxuriant prairies 

 between Vincennes, Ind., and St. Louis, Mo., also abound with them. 



It is probable that in the more rigorous regions of the North they may be 

 birds of passage ; though I have seen them among the meadows of New Jersey 

 and those that border the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers in all seasons, even 

 when the ground was deeply covered with snow. 



I once met with a few of these birds in the month of February — during a 

 deep snow — among the heights of the Allegheny Mountains, gleaning on the road, 

 in company with the small Snowbirds. In South Carolina and Georgia, at the 

 same season of the year, they swarm among the rice plantations, running about 

 the yards and buildings, accompanied by the Killdeers, with little appearance of 

 fear. 



These birds, after the nesting season is over, collect in flocks, but seldom fly 

 in a close, compact body ; their flight is something in the manner of the Grouse 

 and Partridge, laborious and steady, sailing, and renewing the rapid action of the 

 wings, alternately. When they alight on trees or bushes it is generally on the 

 tops of the highest branches, whence they send forth a long clear, and somewhat 

 melancholy note that in sweetness and tenderness of expression is not surpassed 

 by any of our numerous Warblers. This is sometimes followed by a kind of low, 

 rapid chattering, — the particular call of the female ; and again the clear and 

 plaintive strain is repeated as before. 



The nest of this species is built generally in, or below, a thick tuft or tussock 

 of grass. It is composed of dry grass laid at the bottom, and wound all around, 

 leaving an arched entrance level with the ground. The inside is lined with fine 

 stalks of the same materials, disposed with great regularity. The eggs are four, 

 sometimes five, white, marked with specks and several large blotches of reddish 

 brown, chiefly at the thick end. 



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