AMERICAN STARLING, OR MEADOW LARK. 151 
The length of the Sturnella is 10 J inches, its extent 16 J. Above, 
variegated with black, bright bay, and ochreous. Tail wedged, the 
feathers pointed, the 4 outer nearly all white. Sides, thighs, and 
vent pale ochreous, spotted with black. Upper mandible brown, the 
lower bluish white. Iris hazel. Legs and feet large, pale flesh 
color. In the young bird the yellow is much fainter, than in the 
adult. Another species of this subgenus is found at the Straits of 
Magellan, darker than ours, and beneath of a bright carmine red. 
They form truly a very distinct genus. 
TROUPIALS. (Icterus, Brisson.) 
In these birds the bill is in the form of an elongated, sharp-pointed 
cone, somewhat compressed, rounded above, and rarely somewhat 
curved ; with the margins inflected. Nostrils oval, and covered by 
a membrane. Tongue sharp, and cleft at tip. The tarsus rather lon- 
ger than the middle toe ; inner toe but little shorter than the outer, 
and nearly equal to the hind one ; the middle toe longest ; the hind 
nail twice as large as the others. Wings sharp. The 1st primary 
but little shorter than the 3d and 4th, which are longest. 
The Female is very different from the male ; but the young are 
very like the former. They generally moult once a year, but the 
colors are brighter in spring ; in autumn and winter the plumage of 
the male somewhat resembles that of the female. — They are grega- 
rious, and usually omnivorous ; building mostly in trees or bushes ; 
some of them are partly polygamous. Their gait is rather quick, 
with the body almost erect, the flight vigorous. Their flesh not 
usually esteemed. — A genus exclusively American. Some of those 
of the first section, Cassicus, possess considerable melody and power 
of voice 3 as well as those of the subgenera Icterus , and Emberizoides . 
Subgenus. — Icterus. 
With the bill narrower and slightly bent towards the point ; the 
frontal sinus of the bill acute, but not deep. Female scarcely differ- 
ing in size from the male. — These are not constantly gregarious, 
only so during the period of migration, and before incubation ; they 
also frequent forests ; feeding chiefly on insects and berries, though 
when in confinement capable of digesting other vegetable food. In 
