THE MEADOW LARK. 
75 
larger, and consequently the stronger, birds are those which remove farthest 
north in spring. The differences 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 lamen- 
table 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. 
Sturnus ludovicianus, 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, 
margined, 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 
oh 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, 11 T ^, 16i. 
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 papillm, 
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 be, is 4J inches long, very narrow, its average 
width along the neck being 2i twelfths ; on entering the thorax it enlarges 
