DESCRIPTION: "Plumage variegated. Feathers of back, blackish, each with a terminal reddish-brown area 

 and sharp brownish edgings; crown streaked with black and brown, with pale median and supra- 

 ciliary stripes, a blackish line behind the eye ; lateral tail-feathers, white ; the rest, and the inner quills 

 and wing-coverts, black, scalloped with brown or gray ; under-parts and edge of wing, bright yellow ; 

 the breast with a black crescent ; the sides and flanks flaxen-brown with blackish streaks ; bill, horn 

 color; feet, light brown. Sexes, alike; but female less richly colored. 



"Length of male: 10.00 to 11.00 inches; wing, 5.00; tail, 3.50; bill, 1.25 inches. 

 Female smaller: Length, 9.00 to 9.50 inches; wing, 4 25 to 4.50 inches." 



(S. & C, "New England Bird-life," Vol. I, p. 301.) 



The Mexican Meadowlark, Stumella magna mexicana B. B. & R., a little smaller 

 variety of the common Meadowlark, inhabits southern Texas and Arizona, especially 

 the Rio Grande valley, and extends from there south tp Costa Rica. 



The Western Meadowlark, Stumella magna neglecta Allen, which replaces the 

 common species from the Plains westward to the Pacific, is very similar to our common 

 Meadowlark. Its color on the back is a little paler and grayer, but its song is totally 

 different. 



Dr. J. A. Allen writes on this point as follows: "At the little village of Denison, 

 in low^a, w^here I first noticed it in song, it was particularly common, and half-domestic 

 in its habits, prefening, apparently, the streets and grassy lanes, and the immediate 

 vicinity of the village, to the remoter prairie. Here, wholly unmolested and unsuspicious, 

 it collected its food ; and the males, from their accustomed perches on the house-tops, 

 daily w^arbled their wild song for hours together. . . . The song, however, was so new 

 to me that I did not at first have the slightest suspicion its author was the Western 

 Meadowlark, as I found it to be, the time being between daylight and sunrise, and the 

 individual in question singing from the top of the court-house. It differs from that of 

 the Meadowlark in the Eastern States in the notes being louder and wilder, and at the 

 same time more liquid, mellower, and far sweeter. They have a pensiveness and a 

 general character remarkably in harmony with the half-dreary wildness of the primitive 

 prairie, as though the bird had received from its surroundings their peculiar impress; 

 w^hile if less loud their songs w^ould hardly reach their mates above the strong winds 

 that almost constantly sweep over the pxairies in the hot months. It differs, too, in 

 the less frequency of the harsh, complaining chatter so conspicuous in the Eastern birds, 

 so much so that at first I suspected this to be wholly w^anting." 



This difference in the song has been "attested by all observers from Lewis and 

 Clarke down to the present day." (Coues.) 



The late Col. N. S. Goss, in his "History of the Birds of Kansas," writes as follows: 

 "This western form is similar in habits and actions to the eastern bird, and differs so 

 slightly in markings and color that were it not for its widely different song — rather 

 bugle-like — it would have a doubtful standing as a race. It is thought by some writers 

 to be less suspicious and more at home about our dwellings; this I account for on the 

 ground that they are seldom disturbed or shot at, as it is too often the case in the 

 Eastern States." 



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