BIRDS — ICTERIDAE STURNELLA NEGLECTA. 



537 



In other respects there is a great similarity. The species may, however, prove to be distinct. 

 The American meadow lark was first named by Linnaeus in the tenth edition of Syst. Nat. 

 1758, and called Alauda magna, after Catesby's unmistakeable figure. In the twelfth edition 

 "Siurnits ludovicianus" makes its appearance from Brisson. The second description is absolutely 

 inaccurate, (" throat black,") and there is no mention of the yellow under parts. As there is a 

 decided priority for the name of magna, therefore, and the description accompanying it is 

 sufiiciently accurate, while that of ludoviciana is not so, I restore the former, as used by 

 Wilson and Swainson. 



List of specimens. 



STURNELLA NEGLECTA, Aud. 



Western Lark. 



Slurnella neglecta, Aw. Birds Amer. VII, 1843, .SSO ; pi. 487.— Newberry, Zoo). Cal. & Or. Route ; Rep. P. B. R. 



Surv. VI, IV, 1857, 86. 

 ? Stumella hippocrepU, )Wagner,) Heermann, J. A. N. So. Ph. 2d series, II, 1853, 269, Suisun. 



Sp. Ch.— Feathers above dark brown, margined with brownish 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 e.xtending on the side of the ma.\illa. Sides, 

 crissura, 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. Length, 10 inches ; wing, 5.25 ; tail, 3.25 ; bill, 1.25. 



Hab. — Western America from High Central Plains to the Pacific ; east to Pembina, and perhaps to Wisconsin. 



This species is so very closely related to the S. magna as to render it very difficult to 

 distinguish them. The same description as to pattern, colors, size, &c., will apply almost 

 equally well to both. The prevailing shade of color is, however, decidedly paler in neglecta, 

 the light margins to the feathers being purer, the intervals of the dark markings being not 

 reddish browa so much as olivaceous, with a faint trace only of chestnut. As a general rule 

 where the dark brown in S. magna margins the shaft of the feather and sends off angular 

 dentations towards the exterior, in S. neglecta it is thrown into separate narrow transverse 

 bands going entirely across, and not connected by brown along the shafts. This is most 

 Jone 25, 1858. 



68 b 



