OF THE UNITED STATES 205 



tridge, laborious and steady, sailing, and renewing the rapid ac- 

 tion of the wings alternately." 



Meadow-larks, too, sometimes congregate in large, loose flocks, 

 so the sport of hunting them, where they are plenty, does not 

 flag, and a good bag can be made in a few hours. Then the colora- 

 tion of the upper parts" of the bird is decidedly gamy, although 

 the rich yellow of the under parts rather inclines the orthodox 

 sportsman to look at it askant, and with an expression of con- 

 tempt often pronounce it to be nothing more than a passerine 

 bird, belonging to the group of song birds known as the oscines, 

 and most likely related to the orioles, starlings, and blackbirds, 

 all of which is true enough, to be sure. 



Notwithstanding this, young America will nevertheless, as 

 heretofore, still continue to hunt the Old Field Lark, as it is 

 termed in so many sections of the country, and in doing so, gain 

 the first necessary lessons of shooting on the fly. For one, I 

 know my experience with them as far back as 1863, in the salt 

 marshes of Long Island Sound, taught me the tricks of the art, 

 and it was through that practice that I sooner gained the neces- 

 sary control of eye and hand that permitted me to drop in succes- 

 sion ten woodcock in the cover, and that, too, when the birds 

 were stimulated with the crisp air of an October morning, and 

 flew as though they had been shot out of a catapult. 



The plumage and appearance of our Meadow-lark is so well 

 known to all of those who are familiar with our common birds, 

 that a detailed description would obviously be superfluous, espe- 

 cially as such a description would probably not be read or used 

 by those who take no interest in matters of this kind, a charge 

 that I am quite sure cannot be brought to the door of any reader 

 of the present work. For many years the bird has been known 

 to science as Sturnella magna, the first or generic name being the 

 Latin diminutive of the word sturnus, a starling, and the second, 

 or specific name, likewise from the Latin, being derived from 

 wagnus, large or great; a most incongruous combination, indicat- 

 ing as it does a little big starling. There are two sub-species in 

 the genus namely, the Mexican meadow-lark (8. m. mexicana), 

 and the Western meadow-lark (8. m. neglecta), the first named 

 being found from the lower Rio Grande valley .to Panama, and 

 the second in western United States southward through certain 

 parts of Mexico. 



In southern America there is also another representative of 



