MEADOW-LARK, or MEDLARK, a beautiful American starling (Sturnella morsel), numerous in eastern United States as far west as the high central plains, where it is replaced by a variety (S. neglecta) remarkably different in song and some habits. It is about 11 inches long and tail five inches. The body is thick •and stout, the legs large, the bill long and straight and the flight powerful. The upper parts are brown, marked with brownish-white, and the exposed portions of the wings and tail with transverse dark-.brown bars; the under parts yellow, with a black crescent upon the breast, which is very distinctive as well as a handsome ornament. These birds receive their popular name *lark* from their terrestrial habits and way of singing in the air, uttering a loud sweet double call while circling upon flut tering wings above the meadow or grain-field where the nest is carefully concealed among the roots of the grasses. The eggs are white,
profusely speckled with light red. The western variety has a longer, more vivacious and tune ful song than the eastern bird, and is justly accounted the finest songster of the open re gions of the interior. These birds are migra tory in the northern parts of their range, but most of them remain during the winter in the middle parts of the United States and south ward, and in the autumn are often shot for market, although in most States such shooting is now prohibited by law. In the Southern States it is commonly called °old-field lark.* The meadow-lark subsists both on insects and on seeds. In winter they often form groups, but in the fine seasons seldom more than two are seen together. Consult Cones, 'Birds of the Northwest' (Washington 1874).