BIRDS — ICTEKIDAE STUENELLA MAGNA. 535 



STURNELLA, Vieillot. 



Sturnella, Vieillot, Analyse, 1816. Type Alauda magna, h. 



Ch. — Body thick, stout ; legs large, toes reaching beyond the tail. Tail short, even, with narrow acuminate feathers. Bill 

 slender, elongated ; length about three times the height j commissure straight from the basal angle. Culmen flattened basally , 

 extending backwards and parting the frontal feathers ; longer than the head, but shorter than tarsus. Nostrils linear, covered 

 by an incumbent membranous scale. Inner lateral toe longer than the outer, but not reaching to btisal joint of middle ; hind 

 toe a little shorter than the middle, which is equal to the tarsus. Hind claw nearly twice as long as the middle. Feathers ot 

 head stiffened, and bristly ; the shafts of those above extended into a black seta. Tertials nearly equal to the primaries . 

 Feathers above all transversely banded. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent. 



The two species will be best distinguished by the following diagnoses : 



Yellow of chin and throat not extending on the side of the lower jaw. Tail feathers and 

 tertials with the centres dusky, and sending out scollops or dentations of the same color towards 



the margins ^S^- magna. 



Yellow of chin and throat extending on the side of the lower jaw. Tail feathers and tertials 

 with a tendency to transverse isolated bands S. neglecta. 



STURNELLA MAGNA, S w . 



Meadow Lark ; Old Field Lark. 



Mauda magna, Lmu. Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 167, ed. 10 ; (based on Alauda magna, Catesby, tab. 33.) — Ib. 12th ed. 

 1766, 289.— Gm. I, 1788, 801.— Wilson, Am. Orn. Ill, 1811, 20 ; pi. xix.— Doughty, Cab. I, 

 1830,85; pi. v. 

 Sturnella magna, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 436. 

 Slmnus ludovicianus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 1,1766, 290. — GrM. I, 802. — Lath. Ind. I, 1790, 323. — Bon. Obs. 



Wils. 1825. 130.— LicHT. Verz. 1823, No. 165.— Ann. Orn. Biog, II, 1834,216 : V, 1839, 



492 ; pi. 136. 

 Sturnella ludovidana, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. 11, 1831, 282.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 147.— Bon. List, 1838.— 



Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 429.— Ann. Syn. 1839, 148— Is. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 70; pi. 223.— 



Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851,192. 

 Sturnella collaris, Vieill. Analyse, 1816. — Ib. Galerie des Ois. I, 1824, 134 ; pi. xc. 

 Sturnus collaris, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, 1. — 1b. Isis, 1831, 527. 

 " Cacicus alaudarius, Daodin," Cabanis. 



Sp. Ch. — The feathers above dark brown, margined with brownish white, and with a terminal blotch of pale reddish brown. 

 Exposed portions of wings and tail with transverse dark brown bars which on the middle tail feathers are confluent along the 

 shaft. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent, the yellow not extending on the side of the maxilla ; sides, crissum, and 

 tibiae pale reddish brown, streaked with blackish. A light median and superciliary stripe, the latter yellow anterior to the eye ; 

 a black line behind. 



Length, 10.60 ; wing,5; tail, 3.70 ; bill above, 1.35. 



Hub. — Eastern United States to the High Central Plains. South to Mexico? Cuba.' 



In this species all the feathers of the upper parts have a border of brownish white tinged with 

 yellow in moderately distinct contrast, (except on the sides of the head,) a broad stripe from the 

 bill along side the head, (yellow anterior to the eye,) and a median stripe on top of the head, 

 which are entirely of this color. The feathers of the back are dark brown, passing rather 

 abruptly through reddish brown to the light margins described ; they are also tipped with the 

 same, or, perhaps, barred subterminally. The primary quills are ashy brown externally, plain 

 brown on the inner web, this color entering the pale tints of the outer web in obtuse dentations 

 not quite reaching to the outer margin. The secondaries and tertials are somewhat similar ; the 

 ground color of the outer web rather more rufous, the intrusion of the brown more linear. In 



