46 BULLETIN FERGUS COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL 



501b. WESTERN MEADOWLARK. Sturnella magna neglecta. 



A very common resident in summer, preferring the cultivated dis- 

 tricts, and the vicinity of ranches. The meadowlark appears irregularly 

 from the first to the middle of April, taking possession ot meadows and 

 grainfields, and scattering its ringing melody everywhere during the latter 

 half of April. It lingers late in the fall, being active and musical from 

 the middle of September till the middle of October, after which only strag- 

 glers are seen and heard. 



The meadowlark begins to nest about the second week of May, 

 and the nest generally has its full complement of eggs by the 20th of May. 

 On May 24th, 1900, I found a nest of the western meadowlark, containing 

 six eggs advanced in incubation. The nest was among short sprouts in 

 the margin of Big Casino Creek. It was made of coarse dried grass, and 

 protected by a strong dome formed of over-arching dried grass, with a cir- 

 cular entrance, three inches in diameter, in one side. The nest was five 

 inches in diameter, one and one-half inches deep in the depression, and 

 was lined with finer dried grass. As usual, the eggs were white, with spots 

 and blotches of reddish brown. 



On May 25, 1901, I found a nest of the western meadowlark in the 

 same neighborhood as that mentioned in the preceding paragraph. It was 

 made under drooping bush stems in a weedy patch. The walls of the 

 nest were formed of fine dried grass, curved upward and over to make a 

 firm arched covering. The cavity measured five inches from front to 

 back, and four inches in height. Like the one found in 1900, its entrance 

 faced the rising sun. This nest contained six eggs in which incubation had 

 begun. 



Distinguishing features: Upper parts mottled with brown, gray, 

 and black; throat and breast yellow, with a black crescent on upper part 

 of breast; lower parts whitish, frequently with a yellowish tinge; outer 

 tail feathers marked with white; length 8-11 inches. 



508. BULLOCK'S ORIOLE. Icterus bullocki. 



This oriole is a common summer resident in this region, inhabiting 

 the wooded bottom lands, and associating itself almost exclusively with the 

 deciduous growth that fringes the streamsides. It generally appears in 

 this locality in the second week of May, and soon begins to construct its 

 pensile nest in the aspens, cottonwoods and low haw trees, the site being 

 usually between ten and twenty feet from the ground. None of the nests 

 which I have examined was so pendulous as those of the Baltimore oriole, 

 the syle of support being more like that used by the orchard oriole, as 

 the nest is generally suspended from several upright twigs in a way that 

 gives the structure only such movement as is common to the swaying sup- 

 porting branches. The usual material of the nest is coarse weed fibers, 

 and the same material constitutes most of the structure. A soft bed of wool 

 or other downy material completes the nest of the oriole. The eggs, like 

 those of the other orioles, have a background of grayish white, and are 

 very irregularly and curiously marked with spots and lines of blackish 

 brown. 



