BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 289 



MEADOWLARK 



All United States and southern Canada is favored with 

 the presence of the Meadowlark, sometimes wrongly called 

 field-lark. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are inhabited 

 by the Southern meadowlark. From Iowa and ^linnesota 

 westward across the continent in the United States and 

 Canada, the Western meadowlark, a more musical variety, 

 ranges. Southwestern Texas, along the Rio Grande, east 

 to Louisiana, is the home of the Mexican or Rio Grande 

 meadowlark. The true meadowlark occurs from New 

 York, New England, and Quebec, west to the States bor- 

 dering the Mississippi on the west. In portions of Iowa 

 and Missouri, both the Western and Eastern meadowlark 

 may be found breeding together. 



Before there is the slightest indication of budding life, 

 except in the redding of the willow stems, this robust little 

 fellow returns from the South to his favorite meadow or 

 pasture. No bird becomes more attached to a given locality 

 than this starhng. He weathers many a cold northwestern, 

 eking out an existence on weed seeds and a little grain. 

 Old tussocks of grass or a weather-beaten corn shock offer 

 protection from the frosty nights, which are still due for 

 five or six weeks. The flight is low and he moves in a 

 horizontal line, alternately flapping and sailing much like 

 the bob-white, the field-mark being the two white outer 

 tail feathers. His mode of travel through the air would 

 suggest that his flight was uncertain and that he had not 

 fully developed or mastered the art of aviation. 



