ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 177 



Habits. The differences of plumage between this species and our eastern 

 Meadow Lark are so slight that we might hesitate to allow the existence of 

 any specific distinctness between the two forms, were it not for the very 

 strongly marked differences between them in other respects. Wliether we 

 regard them as races or as different species, their history diverges as we cross 

 the Missouri liiver, though both are found on either bank. 



The existence of this variety was first made known by Messrs. Lewis and 

 Clark, in their memorable expedition to the Rocky Mountains. They refer 

 especially to the difference, in the notes, between this bird and the old Field 

 Lark of the east. It remained unnoticed by our ornithologists until 1844, 

 when Mr. Audubon included it in the appendix to his seventh volume. He 

 met with it in his voyage to the Yellowstone, and it would have escaped his 

 notice had not the attention of his party been called to its curious notes. 

 In its flight, manners on the ground, or general habits, he could perceive no 

 difference between it and the common species. None of its nests that he 

 found were covered over, in the manner of the magna, and the eggs were 

 differently marked. 



Mr. J. A. Allen, in his interesting paper on the birds observed in Western 

 Iowa, while he does not admit any specific difference between these two 

 forms, presents with impartial exactness the very striking dissimilarity be- 

 tween them, botli in habits and in song. In regard to the diversity in habits 

 we quote his words : — 



" At the little village of Denison, where I first noticed it in song, it was 

 particularly common, and half domestic in its habits, preferring the streets 

 and grassy lanes, and the immediate vicinity of the village, to the remoter 

 prairie. Here, wholly unmolested and unsuspicious, it collected its food ; 

 and the males, from their accustomed perches on the housetops, daily warbled 

 their wild songs for hours together." These traits of familiarity, so totally 

 different from anything ever observed in our eastern birds, he does not con- 

 cede, however, as establishing necessarily specific difference. Yet he does ad- 

 mit that its song was so new to him that he did not at first have the slightest 

 suspicion that its utterer was the western Meadow Lark, as he found it to be. 

 He adds : " It differs from that of the Meadow Lark in the Eastern States, 

 in the notes being louder and wilder, and at the same time more liquid, mel- 

 lower, and far sweeter. They have a pensiveness and a general character 

 remarkably in harmony with the half-dreamy wildness of the primitive 

 prairie, as though the bird had received from its surroundings their peculiar 

 impress. It differs, too, in the less frequency of the harsh, complaining 

 chatter so conspicuous in the eastern bird." 



The value of these marked differences, both in song and character, between 

 the eastern and western birds, we will not argue, but will only add that they 

 are none too strikingly presented by Mr. Allen. During the writer's brief 

 visit to the Plains he was strongly impressed by the natural, confiding 

 trustfulness of this species and its wonderful beauty of song, both in 



VOL. II. 23 



