206 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



(his genus, small in size, generally darker above, but what is 

 most striking, it has a red breast and throat instead of a brilliant 

 yellow, as in N. magna. Mr. Kidgway, who is probably the best 

 authority we have upon birds among us, says that the Mexican 

 Meadow-lark is smaller than our eastern form, with " smaller 

 bill, but larger feet." The Western meadow-lark is even more 

 conspicuously distinguished, being paler and grayer above, with 

 the black markings not nearly so pronounced. This latter bird 

 I have shot in a great many western localities, and have noticed 

 especially the marked difference in its note as compared with our 

 eastern form (ti. magna). Some of the individuals I shot in 

 New Mexico were markedly pale above and light beneath, and as 

 to a female of this sub-species, one could never confound it with 

 our bird here in the Atlantic States. In some portions of the 

 Mississippi valley the ranges of the two forms often widely over- 

 lap, and in consequence hybrids are occasionally to be found; but 

 these facts only likewise tend to prove the distinctness of 8. 

 magna and 8. m. neglecta, the latter having gained its sub-specific 

 name for Inning been so long overlooked by ornithologists. 



Our eastern Meadow-lark can be considered to be but partially 

 migratory, and I have found not a few of them in the winter time 

 in Central New York, and Wilson remarks, " It is probable that, 

 in the more rigorous regions of the north they may be birds of 

 passage, as they are partially so here; though I have seen them 

 among the meadows of New Jersey and those that border the 

 rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, in all seasons, even when the 

 ground was deeply covered with snow." Wilson, by the way, 

 also adds that in his day throughout the season these birds were 

 exposed for sale in the Philadelphia markets, being considered 

 for the table but little inferior to quail. 



When Meadow-larks do not alight upon the ground they most 

 frequently select the very top of some tree or shrub or end of 

 projecting fence rail in a fence, and the like, and from such 

 points as these it is that he pours forth his prolonged notes, so 

 famous for their clarity, tenderness, and sweet tone. They also, 

 at times, give vent to a rattling clatter of note so different 

 from the other, that one would hardly believe it was uttered by 

 the same bird. It is said that the female does this more often 

 than the male bird. 



Among the rice fields of the south, during the wilder, these 

 birds are sometimes very abundant, coming often close to the 



