FIELD liAEK; MEADOW LARK. 357 



garious, and social while breeding. They are said to place their nest, 

 which is constructed of reeds and aquatic grasses, in tufts of reeds, and 

 rank grasses. The eggs, from three to six in number, are pale grayish- 

 green, thickly spotted with different shades of reddish-brown. They 

 measure 1.10 by .75. 



Genus STUENELLA. VieUlot. 



Body stout, toes reaching beyond the tail. Tail feathers narrow, acutely pointed. 

 Bill long, slender, the culmen extending backward and parting the frontal feathers; 

 longer than the head, shorter than the tarsus. Inner toe longer than outer, not reach- 

 ing base of middle claw. Hind toe a little shorter than the middle, which is equal to 

 the tarsus. Hind claw nearly twiqe as long as the middle. Feathers of head stiffened 

 and bristly. Inner secondaries nearly equal to the primaries. 



Stuknella magna (L.) Sw. 



S^ieldlarlx ; AXeado^vlai-I^. 



Sturnus ludovioianus, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162. 



Sturnella ludovida/na, Read, Fam. Visitor, iii, 1853, 311 ; Proo. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1853, 



395. 

 SturneUa magna, Wheaton, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 366 ; Reprint, 1861, 8 ; Food of 



Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 567 ; Reprint, 1875, 7.— Langdon, Cat. Birds 



of Gin., 1877, 9; Revised List, Journ. Gin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 176; Reprint, 10; 



Field Notes, ib. iii, 1880, 125. 



Alauda magna, Linn^us, Syst. Nat., i, 1758, 167. 

 Sturnus ludovioianus, LiNNiEUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 290. 

 SturneUa ludovieiana, Swainson, Fn. Bor.-Am., 1831, 282. 

 Sturnella magna, Baird, Birds N. Am., 1858, 535. 



Above, the prevailing aspect brown. Each feather of the back blackish, with a ter- 

 minal reddish-brown area, and sharp brownish-yellow borders ; neck similar, the pattern 

 smaller; crown streaked with black and brown, and with a pale median and superciliary 

 stripe; a blackish line behind eye; several lateral tail feathers white, the others with 

 the inner quills and wing-coverts barred or scolloped with black and brown or gray. 

 Edge of wing, spot over eye, and under parts generally, bright yellow, the sides and 

 crissum flaxen-brown, with numerous sharp blackish streaks; the breast with a large 

 black crescent (obscure in the young) ; bill horn-color ; feet light brown. Length, 10-11 ; 

 wing, 5 ; tail, 3^ ; bill, IJ. Female similar, smaller, 9^. 



Habitat, Eastern North America, north to Nova Scotia and latitude 53° ; west to the 

 prairie region, where it is gradually replaced by var. negleota, and represented by other 

 varieties in Cuba, Central America, Mexico, and South America. 



Abundant. Summer resident in Northern, in part resident in Middle, 

 and resident, but less numerous in winter, in Southern Ohio. In this 

 vicinity the Meadow Lark is most abundant from the middle of March 

 to the first of November, but a few spend the severest winters here. I 

 have seen them when the thermometer had recorded a temperature of 

 — 20° the previous night, and the ground covered with snow, apparently 

 wandering in search of food. 



N 



