THE MEADOW LARK. 75 



larger, and consequently the stronger, birds are those which remove farthest 

 north in spring. The difference as to size and colour acknowledged to exist 

 in this species, may be observed in a greater or less degree in almost every 

 bird; and I am fully convinced that a great number of young birds, as well 

 as females, have been converted into distinct species, through the lamentable 

 epidemic mania which has infected the closet-naturalists, who found their 

 fame on the invention of useless names. The eggs of the Meadow Lark are 

 an inch and two-twelfths in length, and seven-eighths in breadth. 



Meadow Lark, Alauda magna, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. iii. p. 20. 



Stdrnus lodoviciancs, Bonap. Syn. 



Sturnus ludovicianus, Crescent Starlet, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. 



p. 282. 

 American Starling or Meadow Lark, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 147. 

 Meadow Lark or American Starling, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 216; vol. v. p. 492. 



Breeds from Texas to the Columbia river, and along the Atlantic coast 

 to Nova Scotia and the Fur Countries. Resident in the Southern and 

 Western States. Abundant. 



Upper parts variegated with dark brown, bay, and dull yellowish, the 

 latter bordering the feathers; those of the hind parts of the back barred, as 

 are the secondary quills and their coverts; primary quills dark brown, mar- 

 gined, the outer with whitish, the rest with pale yellowish; edge of the 

 wing yellow; three outer tail-feathers white, with a dash of black on the 

 outer web near the end, the next feather also more or less white, and barred 

 on the outer web; on the upper part of the head a central and two lateral 

 bands of brownish-yellow, the lateral band sometimes white, anteriorly 

 tinged with yellow; sides of the head and neck greyish-white, flanks and 

 lower tail-coverts reddish-white, streaked with black; fore neck and breast 

 rich yellow, the former with a large crescent of black. Female smaller, but 

 otherwise similar. 



Male, llfV, 161 



In an adult male preserved in spirits, the roof of the mouth has a median 

 ridge anteriorly, with two ridges on the palate, which is convex and ascend- 

 ing; the posterior aperture of the nares linear, margined with large papillae, 

 and 8 twelfths long. The tongue is slender, 10 twelfths long, deeply sagit- 

 tate and papillate at the base, concave above, horny beneath, with a median 

 groove, thin-edged, lacerated toward the tip, which is slit to the depth of 1 

 twelfth. It resembles the tongue of the Quiscali, Starlings, Crows, and 

 Thrushes. The oesophagus, a b c, is 4^ inches long, very narrow, its average 

 width along the neck being 2 1 - twelfths; on entering the thorax it enlarges 



