236 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



are rather elongated ovate in shape, sometimes practically elliptical and 

 measure from .85 to 1.21 inches in length by from .72 to .89 in width, the 

 average dimension being i.i by .8 inches. The period of incubation is 

 about 1 6 days. The young after a few days are so covered with down 

 interspersed with brownish and buffy feathering, and remain so silent 

 and motionless, closing their eyes when any unusual sound approaches, 

 that it is practically impossible to distinguish them. I have frequently 

 looked into the nest of a Meadowlark and been unable to tell whether 

 there were 2 or 7 young, without first unraveling the tangle with my fingers. 

 This is undoubtedly a great protection to the young birds as they would 

 not be noticed by their enemies. Nevertheless, great numbers of the 

 young are destroyed by early mowing which is practised so generally 

 throughout the New York meadows. This species which in 1895 was 

 reported by Bendire as decreasing throughout central New York due to 

 this cause seems at present time to be maintaining its numbers by adapta- 

 tion to the existing conditions, nesting more in waste places, or in localities 

 which are not mowed and raked by machinery, or by nesting so early 

 that the young are out of the way of the mowing machine. Meadowlarks 

 like blackbirds are a sociable species, very rarely an individual being found 

 alone. In the fall they gather into small troops, not simply one pair with 

 their young, but apparently several families, so that from the same meadow 

 or marshland from 30 to 50 or even 100 meadowlarks are frequently flushed 

 and in the southern states where the principal number of the species pass 

 the winter I have frequently seen thousands gathered in the same field. 



Icterus spurius (Linnaeus) 

 Orchard Oriole 



Plate 75 



Oriolus spurius Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. 1766. Ed. 12. 1:162 

 Icterus spurius DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 140, fig. 46 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 23. No. 506 



icterus, Gr. and Lat. for jaundice, a yellow bird, probably the golden oriole; spurius, 

 Lat., spurious, bastard, referring to this bird's former name of " Bastard Baltimore oriole " 



Description. Adult, male: Head, neck, throat and forward part of the 

 back black; rump, under parts and lesser wing coverts chestnut; wings 



