200 PRAIRIE BIRDS OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. 
vigorous and well-sustained song, the blue jays (Cyanura cristata) 
squalled and chattered as they prowled among the branches ; while 
the red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) frolicked 
among the trees. The most abundant bird besides the foregoing 
species was the tufted titmouse (Lophophanes bicolor), which 
nearly mimicked the jays in both habits and notes. 
On the open prairie the birds were all entirely different. The 
meadow lark (Sturnella magna — the true mag gna, and not at all 
approaching 8. neglecta, in either manners, notes or plumage!) 
was the most conspicuous, from its size ‘and the plaintive sweet- 
ness of its song. The “dick sissel” (Euspiza Americana) was 
perhaps the most abundant bird, and the males were perched upon 
the tall coarse weeds all around us, chanting their vigorous but 
rude ditties. Henslow’s bunting {iteriieus Henslowi) and the 
yellow-winged bunting (O. passerinus) were scarcely less abun- 
dant, andslike the dick sissels were perched upon the tops of the 
weed-stalks, uttering their simple, abrupt lisping songs. Though 
we had never met with Henslow’s bunting before, we found it to 
be much more common here than the C. passerinus, and in a little 
while easily succeeded in securing seven fine specimens. At the 
edge of a pond we saw what we thought to be the Passerculus 
savanna, but the bird escaped by running into the grass after we 
had crippled it. Over the surface of the pond were flitting and 
hovering a couple of black terns (Hydrochelidon fissipes), while 
among the rushes and sedges of its border the red-winged black- 
birds (Ageleus pheniceus), and both species of marsh wrens 
( Telmatodytes palustris and Cistothorus stellaris), were nesting ; and 
when away from the pond, we were certain that we heard the harsh 
grating notes of the yellow-headed blackbird (Xanthocephalus 
icterocephalus), well known to us, but we did not see this species 
there. In the grassy portions of the prairie the field plover 
(Actiturus Bartramius) was more or less common, and, except the 
killdeer (Ægialitis vociferus), was the only other species of the 
family observed there. The lark bunting (Chondestes grammaca) 
was more or less common about the border of the corn-fields and 
scattered groves along the edge of the prairie, and we listened to 
its vivacious and unusually vigorous song with more pleasure than 
we had felt upon hearing any other bird during the day, for we 
regard this bird as the finest singer of its family on the continent ; 
a . : Ken sprightly, — continued song, having a peculiar emo- 
