Across the Fields. 249 



The Starling of Europe has been introduced in the vicihity of New 

 York, and with apparent success, as the birds have increased in numbers and 



Starline "^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ small flocks in the different parks and at 



sturnus vulgaris points lu the recently annexed portions of Westchester 

 County. It has also been recorded as an accidental 

 straggler in Greenland. 



The birds are about eight inches and a half long, and are of a general 

 dark metallic green or purple color. Above each feather is tipped with a 

 buff spot, and below only those of the sides are similarly marked. The nest 

 is made of grasses and sticks and lined with finer material. It is placed in 

 some convenient crevice in the eaves of buildings, or at times in hollows in 

 trees. The eggs vary from four to six in number, and are pale blue in color. 

 They are rather less than an inch and a fifth long and nearly nine tenths of 

 an inch broad. 



The Crow is a bird about nineteen inches and a half in length and clear 



black, with blue and purplish sheen throughout. The upper parts, wings 



and tail, are more brilliant than the under parts. The 



American Crow, sexes are alike, and young birds are dull black or dusky, 



Corvus Americanus (Aud.). , . ^ , , .„ ^ , ^ ,_-,, 



havmg none of the sheen tul after the first moult. The nest 

 is a bulky affair, made of sticks and lined with strips of bark, dried cow and 

 horse dung, grasses, and moss. It is placed in the crotch or fork of a tree 

 usually more than thirty feet from the ground. Four to six eggs are laid. 

 These are greenish or bluish green, heavily marked with varying shades of 

 dark brown. This is the usual color, but the eggs vary much and are some- 

 times white or pale blue, with very few markings. They are an inch and 

 seven tenths long and less than an inch and a fifth broad. The Crow is 

 found throughout North America from the Fur Countries to Mexico. It is 

 of local distribution in the West and probably does not occur in Florida, be- 

 ing there represented by the Florida Crow. It winters from the Northern 

 United States southward. 



One of the distinctive birds of the open, found in old fields and pas- 

 tures and meadows, who loves the prairies of the South and West equally 

 Meadowlark. "^^l^- i^ ^he Field- or Meadowlark. A bird that ranges 

 sturneiia magna (Linn.), over 3. vast area, which docs not migrate very far from its 



