BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 363 



position they are wary and difficult to approach, but when walking 

 about on the ground they trust to the long grasses for protection, and 

 sometimes do not take wing until one is within a few feet of them. 

 In Cuba I noticed that a Meadowlark, closely related to ours, was 

 very careful to conceal its brightly colored breast, with its distinctly 

 marked crescent, and, although even perching birds were not shy, they 

 would invariably turn their backs upon me as I drew near. 



The Meadowlark's song is a clear, plaintive whistle of unusual 

 sweetness. It is subject to much variation, both individually and 

 geographically. The birds near my home at Englewood, N. J., generally 



sing: ^zzE^i ^zzrpEEE fc Eg fj But tne son g s of 



Florida birds are so different, I hardly recognized them by their notes. 



In the fall, Meadowlarks at the north gather in flocks and resort to 

 large marshes. 



1908. CHAPMAN, F. M., Camps and Cruises, 15 (nesting). 



501c. S. m. argutula Bangs. SOUTHERN MEADOWLARK. Similar to S. 

 m. magna but smaller and darker. W., 4*40. 



Range. Austroriparian and Floridian faunas from s. Ills., sw. Ind., 

 and N. C., s. to the coast of se. Tex., La., and s. Fla. 



Nesting date, San Mateo, Fla., Apl. 22. 



501.1. Sturnella neglecta And. WESTERN MEADOWLARK. Ads. 

 Prevailing color of upperparts grayish brown, crown with a central huffy 

 stripe; back black, feathers widely margined with grayish brown; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts with narrow black bars; outer tail-feathers mostly 

 white; middle ones brownish gray, barred with black, the bars generally 

 not connected, and as a rule reaching the margins of the feathers; line from 

 the bill over the eye yellow; ear-coverts grayish white; throat yellow, this 

 color reaching up on the sides of the throat and touching ear-coverts ; breast 

 and upper belly yellow, a black crescent on breast; sides and lower belly 

 whitish, spotted or streaked with black. Ads. and Im. in winter. Upper- 

 parts more widely margined with grayish brown, these grayish brown tips 

 with small, broken black bars; yellow of underparts duller, the black cres- 

 cent veiled with whitish. W., 4'60; T., 3'00; B., 1'25. 



Range. W. N. Am. Breeds from s. B. C., cen. Alberta, and s. Man. s. 

 to s. Calif., n. Mex., and cen. Tex.; winters from s. B. C. and Iowa, s. to L. 

 Calif., and Guanajuato; e. casually to Wise., s. Mich., and n. III., accidental 

 in s. Mackenzie. 



SE. Minn., common S. R., Mch. 25-Oct. 15. 



The Western Meadowlark resembles the eastern bird in habits, 

 but its markedly different song and the fact that at the junction of their 

 ranges in the Mississippi Valley both birds may be found nesting with- 

 out evidence of geographical intergradation, have finally won for the 

 western bird the rank of a species. Just what the relations of the two 

 forms may be in the Rio Grande Valley, and what part Sturnella magna 

 hoopesi, of that region, plays in the problem has not yet been determined. 



The call note of neglecta is a chuck, chuck followed by a wooden 

 rolling 6-r-r-r-r, analogous to but very unlike the dzit or yert and metallic 

 twitter of magna. The song of magna is a clean-cut fifing without 

 grace notes; that of neglecta is of mellow bubbling flute-notes. The 



