BIRDS ICTERIDAE STURNELLA NEGLECTA. 
537 
In other respects there is a great similarity. The species may, however, prove to he distinct. 
The American meadow lark was first named hy Linnaeus in the tenth edition of Syst. Nat. 
1758, and called Alauda magna, after Catesby's unmistakeahle figure. In the twelfth edition 
<c Sturnus ludovicianus" makes its appearance from Brisson. The second description is absolutely 
inaccurate, (" throat black,") and there is no mention of the yellow under parts. As there is a 
decided priority for the name of magna, therefore, and the description accompanying it is 
sufficiently accurate, while that of ludovlciana is not so, I restore the former, as used by 
Wilson and Swainson. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When col- 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
ofwings. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
1303 
1613 
1555 
4545 
7584 
2689 
4294 
8190 
8177 
8180 
5687 
6555 
9327 
9326 
9325 
8621? 
3 
3 
Q 
9 
Carlisle, Pa 
Mar. 21, 1844 
June 24, 1844 
S. F. Baird 
10.58 
9.75 
9.00 
7.25 
16.08 
15.50 
14.50 
14.00 
4.91 
4.66 
4.41 
4.58 
May 20, 1844 
3 
Mar. — , 1844 
3 
3 
3 
3 
July 12,1857 
July 3, 1857 
W. M. Magraw.... 
126 
113 
116 
5 
9.75 
10.25 
10.00 
16.00 
15.25 
4.75 
4.87 
4.75 
Shawnee Mission, K. T. 
do 
East of Fort. Riley, K.T. 
June 13, 1856 
3 
3 
3 
July 
Lieut. Warren 
10.25 
10.00 
9.75 
16.00 
15.50 
15.75 
5.00 
4.50 
4.75 
Iris dark brown.... 
Iris light yellow.... 
Iris dark brown 
STURNELLA NEGLECTA, Aud. 
Western Lark. 
Sturnella neglecta, Aud. Birds Airier. VII, 1843, 339 ; pi. 487.— Newberry, Zool. Cal. & Or. Route ; Rep. P. B. R. 
Surv. VI, iv, 1857, 86. 
? Sturnella hippocrepis, )Wagner,) Heermann, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. 2d series, II, 1853, 2G9, Suisun. 
Sp. Ch. — Feathers above dark brown, margined with brownish white, with a terminal blotch of pale reddish brown. Exposed 
portion of wings and tail with transverse bands, which, in the latter, are completely isolated from each other, narrow and 
linear. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent. The yellow of the throat extending on the side of the maxilla. Sides, 
crissum, and tibia very pale reddish brown, or nearly white, streaked with blackish. Head with a light median and superciliary 
stripe, the latter yellow in front of the eye ; a blackish line behind it. The transverse bars on the feathers above (less so on the 
tail) with a tendency to become confluent near the exterior margin. Length, 10 inches ; wing, 5.25 ; tail, 3.25 ; bill, 1.25. 
Hab. — "Western America from High Central Plains to the Pacific ; cast to Pembina, and perhaps to Wisconsin. 
This species is so very closely related to the S. magna as to render it very difficult to 
distinguish them. The same description as to pattern, colors, size, &c, will apply almost 
equally well to both. The prevailing shade of color is, however, decidedly paler in neglecta, 
the light margins to the feathers being purer, the intervals of the dark markings being not 
reddish brown so much as olivaceous, with a faint trace only of chestnut. As a general rule 
where the dark brown in S. magna margins the shaft of the leather and sends off angular 
dentations towards the exterior, in S. neglecta it is thrown into separate narrow transverse 
bands going entirely acruss, and not connected by brown along the shafts. This is most 
June 25, 1858. 
G8b 
