MEADOW LARK. 
311 
MEADOW LARK ALAUDA MAGNA Plate XIX. Fig. 2. 
Linn. Syst. 289. — Crescent Stare, Arct. Zool. 330. No. ]92, Lath. iii. 6, var. A — 
Le fer-a-cheval, ou Merle a Collier d’Amerique, Buff. iii. p. 371. — Catesb. Car. i. 
pi. 33. — Bartram, p. 290. — Peak's Museum , No. 5212. 
STTJRNELLA L UDO VICIANA. — Swainson.* 
Sturnus Ludovicianus, (sub-genus Sturnella,) Bonap. Synop. p. 49. — Sturnella 
collaris, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. pi. 80. — Sturnella Ludoviciana, North. Zool. ii. p. 282. 
Though this well known species cannot boast of the 
powers of song which distinguish that “ harbinger of day,” 
the Sky Lark of Europe, yet in richness of plumage, as well as 
in sweetness of voice, (as far as his few notes extend,) he 
stands eminently its superior. He differs from the greater 
part of his tribe in wanting the long straight hind claw, which 
is probably the reason why he has been classed, by some late 
naturalists, with the Starlings. But in the particular form of 
his bill, in his manners, plumage, mode and place of building 
his nest, Nature has clearly pointed out his proper family. 
* In changing the specific name of this species, C. L. Bonaparte thinks 
that Wilson must have been misled by some European author, as he was 
acquainted with the works wherein it was previously described. It ought to 
remain under the appellation bestowed on it by Linnaeus, Brisson, &c. With 
regard to the generic term, this curious form has been chosen by Vieillot, as the 
type of his genus Sturnella , containing yet only two species, — that of Wilson, 
and another from the southern continent. The form is peculiar to the New 
World, and seems to have been a subject of uncertainty to most ornithologists, 
as we find it placed in the genera Turdus, Sturnus, Alauda, and Cassicus, to 
all of which it is somewhat allied, but to none can it rank as a congener. In 
the bill, head and wings, with some modification, we have the forms of the 
two first and last ; in the colours of the plumage, the elongation of the 
scapularies, and tail-coverts, in the legs, feet, and hinder claw, that of the 
Alaudce. The tarsi and feet are decidedly ambulatorial, as is confirmed by the 
habits of the species, though the tail indicates that of a scansorial bird ; but as 
far as we yet know, it is the only indication of this power. In the structure of 
the nest, we have the weaving of the Icteri, the situation of many of the 
Warblers, and the form of the true Wrens — Ed. 
