364 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



Shuiiella magna, Swainson. 



This beautiful species, the Meadow Lark, though 

 very common in this latitude during the breeding- 

 season, appears from the ist to the I5th of April. 

 Unlike the purple grakle which is gregarious in 

 early spring, this species arrives from the South 

 seemingly already paired for the essential duties 

 of nidification, incubation, &c. It is particularly 

 fond of lowlands which it occasionally deserts for 

 more elevated situations, and manifests a degree 

 a shyness and retirement which is scarcely sur- 

 passed by none. During some mild winters, we 

 have discerned this species in quiet and sheltered 

 valleys along the Wissahickon creek, subsisting 

 upon the seeds, berries, and coleoptera, which it 

 is able to procure. It shuns rather than courts 

 the society of man, although in Georgia and South 

 Carolina, according to Wilson, it swarms among 

 the rice plantations, and consorts with the Killdeer 

 Plovers about yards and out-buildings where it 

 makes itself perfectly familiar. 



The song of the Meadow Lark is characterized 

 by great sweetness. During the love-season they 

 >erch upon a bush, or tree, or any other elevated 

 object, give utterance to notes which for sweetness 

 and tenderness of expression, are unrivalled by 

 few of our birds. These notes are sometimes 

 varied by a few chattering calls which add nought 

 to their improvement. 



The flight of this bird is generally low, undulat- 



