BIRDS—ICTERIDAE—STURNELLA NEGLECT A. 
537 
In other respects there is a great similarity. The species may, however, prove to he distinct. 
The American meadow lark was first named by Linnaeus in the tenth edition of Syst. Nat. 
1758, and called Alauda magna , after Catesby’s unmistakeable figure. In the twelfth edition 
“ Sturnus ludovicianus” makes its appearance from Brisson. The second description is absolutely 
inaccurate, (“throat black,”) and there is no mention of the yellow under parts. As there is a 
decided priority for the name of magna, therefore, and the description accompanying it is 
sufficiently accurate, while that of ludoviciana is not so, I restore the former, as used by 
Wilson and Swainson. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex. 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Orig. 
No. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings. 
Wing. 
Remarks. 
1303 
$ 
Carlisle, Pa. 
Mar. 21, 1844 
10.58 
16.08 
4.91 
1613 
$ 
June 24, 1844 
9.75 
15.50 
4.66 
1555 
O 
May 20, 1844 
9.00 
14.50 
4.41 
4545 
Q 
7.25 
14.00 
4.58 
7584 
2689 
S. F. Baird. 
4294 
1854. 
8190 
s 
July 12, 1857 
126 
9.75 
4.75 
8177 
3 
Shawnee Mission,K. T. 
July 3,1857 
113 
10.25 
16.00 
4.87 
Feet flesh. 
8180 
A 
116 
10.00 
15.25 
4.75 
5687 
A 
East of Fort. Riley, K. T. 
June 13, 1856 
5 
Fort Riley, K. T. 
9327 
3 
Loup Fork. 
July. 
10.25 
16.00 
5.00 
Iris dark brown.... 
9326 
$ 
.do. 
10.00 
15.50 
4.50 
Iris light yellow.... 
9325 
$ 
Aug. 13. 
9.75 
15.75 
4.75 
Iris dark brown.... 
8621 ? 
Fort Thorn.. 
STURNELLA NEGLECTA, Aud. 
Western Lark. 
Sturnella neglccta, Aud. Birds Amer. VII, 1843, 339 ; pi. 487.— Newberry, Zool. Cal. & Or. Route ; Rep. P. H. R. 
Surv. VI, iv, 1857, 86. 
? Sturnella hippocrepis, )Wagner,) Heermann, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. 2d series, II, 1853, 269, Suisun. 
Sp. Ch. —Feathers above dark brown, margined with brownish white, with a terminal blotch of pale reddish brown. Exposed 
portion of wings and tail with transverse bands, which, in the latter, are completely isolated from each other, narrow and 
linear. Beneath yellow, with a black pectoral crescent. The yellow of the throat extending on the side of the maxilla. Sides, 
crissum, and tibia very pale reddish brown, or nearly white, streaked with blackish. Head with a light median and superciliary 
stripe, the latter yellow in front of the eye ; a blackish line behind it. The transverse bars on the feathers above (less so on the 
tail) with a tendency to become confluent near the exterior margin. Length, 10 inches ; wing, 5.25 ; tail, 3.25 ; bill, 1.25. 
Hah. —Western America from High Central Plains to the Pacific ; east to Pembina, and perhaps to Wisconsin. 
This species is so very closely related to the S. magna as to render it very difficult to 
distinguish them. The same description as to pattern, colors, size, &c., will apply almost 
equally well to both. The prevailing shade of color is, however, decidedly paler in neglecta, 
the light margins to the feathers being purer, the intervals of the dark markings being not 
reddish brown so much as olivaceous, with a faint trace only of chestnut. Asa general rule 
where the dark brown in S. magna margins the shaft of the feather and sends off angular 
dentations towards the exterior, in S. neglecta it is thrown into separate narrow transverse 
bands going entirely across, and not connected by brown along the shafts. This is most 
June 25, 1858. 
68 b 
