372 KORTII AMERICAN BIRDS. 



lateral tail-feathers partly white. Young : Coloi's much duller, ami markings less 

 distinct; black mark on chest onlj' faintly indicated. Length, males, about 9.50- 

 11.00, females, 8.00-10.00. JVest on or embedded in ground, in meadows, composed 

 of dried grasses, sometimes arched over on top. Eggs 3-7, white, speckled with. 

 reddish brown, blackish brown, and lilac-gray. 



a'. Yellow of throat not encroaching laterally on malar region ; color darker and 



browner above, with heavier and more confluent black markings, the flanks 



antl under tail-coverts distinctly buffy. 



6'. Larger, with larger bill and smaller feet. Adult male: AVing 4.40-5.00, 



(4.74;, culmen 1.20-1.52 (1.29), tarsus 1.54-1.71 (1.G3). Adult female : 



AVing 3.95-4.30 (4.11), culmen 1.04-1.17 (1.12), tarsus 1.40-1.49 (1.42). 



Eggs 1.09 X -80. Hab. Eastern North America (except Florida?), west to 



edge of Great Plains, north to Canada. 



501. S. magna (Linn.). Meadowlark. 

 6'. Smaller, with smaller bill and larger feet. Adult male: Wing 4.20-4.80 

 (4.40), culmen 1.13-1.30 (1.22), tarsus 1.50-1.72 (1.62). Adult female: 

 Wing about 3.90-4.10, tail 2.70, culmen 1.05, tarsus 1.50. Hab. Eastern 

 and central Mexico and south to Costa Eica ; north to southern Texas 

 (lower Eio Grande Valley) and southern Arizona; Florida? 



501a. S. magna mexicana (Scl.). Mexican Meadowlark. 

 a'. Yellow of throat spread laterally over the malar region ; color paler and grayer 

 above, with black markings loss conspicuous, those on tortials and middle 

 tail-feathers in form of isolated naiTow bars, not connected along the shaft, 

 as is usual in magna and mexicana ; flanks and lower tail-coverts white, very 

 faintly, if at all, tinged with buff. 



Adult male: Wing 4.85-5.30 (5.01), culmen 1.20-1.36 (1.29), tarsus 1.50- 

 1.60 (1.54). Adult female: Wing 4.30-4.60 (4.41), culmen 1.10-1.22 

 (1.17), tarsus 1.33-1.43 (1.41). Eggs 1.12 X -81. Hab. Western North 

 America, north to British Columbia and Manitoba, cast regularly to 

 Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, sparingly to Illinois and Wis 

 consin ; south through western Mexico. 



5016. S. magna neglecta (Auc). Western Meadowlark.' 



Genus ICTERUS Brisson. (Pago 366, pi. CIL, figs. 1-3.) 



Species. 



a}. Depth of bill at base dccidedl}' less than half the length of the exposed culmen. 

 6'. Bill not dccurved terminally. (Subgenus Icterus.') 



' Without much doubt a distinct species. The ooourrenoe of both S. neglecta and S. magna together ia 

 many portions of the Mississippi Valley, each in its typical stylo (the ranges of the two overlapping, in 

 fact, for a distance of several hundred miles), taken together with the excessive rarity of intermediate speci- 

 mens and the universally attested radical difference in their notes, are facta wholly Incompatible with the theory 

 of tboir being merely geographical races of the samo species. 



