BIRDS OF THE ARID PLAIN 95 



corroborated by a footnote answering to an asterisk 

 affixed to the name of the western lark : 



"Without much doubt a distinct species. The occur- 

 rence of both S. neglecta and S. magna together in many 

 portions of the Mississippi Valley, each in its typical style 

 (the ranges of the two overlapping, in fact, for a distance 

 of several hundred miles), taken together with the ex- 

 cessive rarity of intermediate specimens and the univer- 

 sally attested radical difference in their notes, are facts 

 wholly incompatible with the theory of their being merely 

 geographical races of the same species." 



This has been a long excursus, and we must get back 

 to our jaunt on the plain. While I was engaged in 

 watching the birds already named, my ear was greeted 

 by a loud, clear, bell-like call ; and, on looking in the 

 direction from which it came, I observed a bird hover- 

 ing over a ploughed field not far away, and then descend- 

 ing with graceful, poising flight to the ground. It 

 proved to be the Arkansas flycatcher, a large, elegant 

 bird that is restricted to the West. I had never seen 

 this species. Nothing like him is known in the East, 

 the crested flycatcher being most nearly a copy of him, 

 although the manners of the two birds are quite unlike. 

 The body of the western bird is as large as that of the 

 robin, and he must be considerably longer from tip of 

 beak to tip of tail. He is a fine-looking fellow, present- 



