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BIRDS—ICTERIDAE—STURNELLA MAGNA. 535 
STURNELLA, Vieillot. 
Sturnella, Vieillot, Analyse, 1816. Type Maud a magna, L. 
Ch. —Body thick, stout; legs large, toes reaching beyond the tail. Tail short, even, with narrow acuminate feathers. Bill 
slender, elongated ; length about three times the height; commissure straight from the basal angle. Cuhnen flattened basally, 
extending backwards and parting the frontal feathers ; longer than the head, but shorter than tarsus. Nostrils linear, covered 
by an incumbent membranous scale. Inner lateral toe longer than the outer, but not reaching to basal joint of middle; hind 
toe a little shorter than the middle, which is equal to the tarsus. Hind claw nearly twice as long as the middle. Feathers ot 
head stiffened, and bristly ; the shafts of those above extended into a black seta. Tertials nearly equal to the primaries. 
Feathers above all transversely banded. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent. 
The two species will be best distinguished by the following diagnoses : 
Yellow of chin and throat not extending on the side of the lower jaw. Tail feathers and 
tertials with the centres dusky, and sending out scollops or dentations of the same color towards 
the margins...................... S. magna. 
Yellow of chin and throat extending on the side of the lower jaw. Tail feathers and tertials 
with a tendency to transverse isolated hands... S. negleda. 
STURNELLA MAGNA, S w . 
Meadow Dark; Old Field Lark. 
Mauda magna, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1758, 167, ed. 10 ; (based on Mauda magna, Catesby, tab. 33.)— Ib. 12th ed. 
1766, 289.—Gm. I, 1788, 801.— Wilson, Am. Orn. Ill, 1811, 20; pi. xix.— Doughty, Cab. I, 
1830, 85; pi. v. 
Sturnella magna, Swainson, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 436. 
Sturnus ludovicianus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 290 .—Gm. I, 802.— Lath. Ind. I, 1790, 323.— Bon. Ohs. 
Wils. 1825, 130.— Licht. Verz. 1823, No. 165.— Aud. Orn. Biog, II, 1834,216: V, 1839, 
492; pi. 136. 
Sturnella ludoviciana, Swainson, F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 282.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832, 147.— Bon. List, 1838.— 
Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 429.— Aud. Syn. 1839, 148.— Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 70; pi. 223.— 
Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851,192. 
Sturnella collaris, Vieill. Analyse, 1816.— Ib. Galerie des Ois. I, 1824, 134 ; pi. xc. 
Sturnus collaris, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, 1.— Ib. Isis, 1831, 527. 
“ Cacicus alaudarius, Daudin,” Cabanis. 
Sp. Ch—T he feathers above dark brown, margined with brownish white, and with a terminal blotch of pale reddish brown. 
Exposed portions of wings and tail with transverse dark brown bars which on the middle tail feathers are confluent along the 
shaft. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent, the yellow not extending on the side of the maxilla ; sides, crissum, and 
tibiae pale reddish brown, streaked with blackish. A light median and superciliary stripe, the latter yellow anterior to the eye ; 
a black line behind. 
Length, 10.60 ; wing,5; tail, 3.70 ; bill above, 1.35. 
Hab. —Eastern United States to the High Central Plains. South to Mexico? Cuba? 
In this species all the feathers of the upper parts have a border of brownish white tinged with 
yellow in moderately distinct contrast, (except on the sides of the head,) a broad stripe from the 
hill along side the head, (yellow anterior to the eye,) and a median stripe on top of the head, 
which are entirely of this color. The feathers of the back are dark brown, passing rather 
abruptly through reddish brown to the light margins described ; they are also tipped with the 
same, or, perhaps, barred subterminally. The primary quills are ashy brown externally, plain 
brown on the inner web, this color entering the pale tints of the outer web in obtuse dentations 
not quite reaching to the outer margin. The secondaries and tertials are somewhat similar; the 
ground color of the outer web rather more rufous, the intrusion of the brown more linear. In 
