12 
The Meadowlark 
once as is the custom with Quails. Their flight is leisurely and rather 
slow, which renders them an easy mark for the amateur gunner. 
In many States Meadowlarks are protected by law, but over con- £ 
siderable areas of the southern part of our country the birds are still 
on their bodies. How can anyone enjoy shooting the life out of one 
of these beautiful guardians of the meadow ? Think how devoid of all 
the finer feelings a man or boy must be who can experience a thrill 
dubon Society in this country to-day there is one who, when he becomes a 
man, will shoot a Meadowlark. 
Quite aside from the beauty of its song and of its plumage, this bird 
by eating insects and weed-seeds is helping every farmer and gardener 
to raise his crops. Meadowlarks do extremely little damage to fruit 
or grain, and in many parts of the country they are never accused of 
doing any harm whatever. Now and then some of them get a few 
grains of corn or wheat, but they pay for this a thousand fold by the good 
services they render to the man who' is trying to 1 raise the corn or wheat. 
Out on the plains of the far West, and along the Pacific Coast, there 
is found the Western Meadowlark. In appearance it closely resembles 
the eastern bird of the same name, but it is a far more famous singer. 
At times it appears to possess the wonderful powers of the ventriloquist. 
I remember one morning in northeastern California when I vainly sought 
to see one of these birds, that sounded as though its song might be 
coming from some stake along a fence two' hundred feet away. With 
my field-glass I swept the fence from right to left and back again. 
larks often come into towns, and there make themselves quite at home. 
The first one I ever heard singing, indeed, was in a city, the city of San 
Diego, California. For ten minutes I harkened to its song as it stood on 
a telephone-pole, and all the while hundreds of people were passing. 
The Meadowlark belongs to the Order Passer es, Suborder O seines and Family 
Icteridce. Its scientific name is Sturnella magna magna. Three geographical races 
are recognized in the United States, in addition to the eastern bird : Rio Grande 
Meadowlark ( Sturnella hoopesi) ; Southern Meadowlark ( Sturnella m. argutula ) ; 
and Western Meadowlark ( Sturnella m. neglecta). The Meadowlark breeds 
throughout the United States, in southern Ontario, and northwestward to the 
Saskatchewan Valley; and it winters wherever cold and snowfall are not severe. 
persistently shot for sport and for the small morsel of flesh to be found 
Not a 
Game-bird 
of pleasure in seeing a song-bird fall torn and bleed- 
ing to the earth. I refuse to believe that of all the 
hundreds of thousands of Junior members of the Au- 
Over and over I did this, searching for the splendid 
musician whose song sounded again and again in the 
clear air; and then by accident I discovered the bird 
standing on a bush not twenty feet from me. These Western Meadow- 
Classification and Distribution 
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of 
Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request, 
