WESTERN MEADOWLARK. Sturnella neglecta Audubon

Field characters.—Of chunky build, with stout bill, legs, and feet, and short wings and tail. Under surface bright yellow, with a large black crescent across breast; head with three parallel light stripes, one over each eye and a third over crown; upper surface brown, streaked and barred with black and buff; margin of tail white, showing best in flight. Flight direct with continuous and rapid beating of wings; when on ground walks instead of hopping. Voice: An elaborate, clear, rolling song of 8 to 12 notes; a clear whistle; a short chuck'; a chuckling, throaty chr-r-r-r-r; also various combinations of these notes.

Occurrence.—Common resident west of the Sierras in the Lower and Upper Sonoran zones; also in smaller numbers east of Sierras, at Walker Lake, Parker Creek, Mono Lake Post Office, etc. During the fall months single vagrant birds have been observed in Yosemite Valley, on Tuolumne Meadows, and even on a pass at 9700 feet altitude near Ten Lakes (October 11, 1915). One individual was seen in the Valley between June 20 and 25, 1893 (Emerson, 1893, p. 180); in 1920 single birds were noted there on May 23 and November 12 and 15, and two on October 30 (C. W. Michael, MS). Lives on open grassy plains, meadows, and pasturelands.

The Western Meadowlark is by far the most conspicuous and at the same time the most pleasing songster to be found on the grassy plains of the San Joaquin Valley or on the meadowlands of the Sierran foothills. It easily surpasses in vocal attainments any of its blackbird or oriole relatives, and compares favorably with the best of the forest and cañon carollers. Travelers who go to Yosemite by railroad have excellent opportunities to observe the species from the train windows anywhere through the San Joaquin Valley, especially between Merced and the foothills; while the autoist may see the birds in numbers along any of the several roadways leading into the mountains. The bright flashes of yellow glimpsed as the birds whir away across the fields, and the snatches of wonderfully melodious song heard above the noise of train or machine, serve only to increase one's desire to see and hear more of this justly famed songster.

Although essentially a ground dwelling species, as is indicated by its stout legs and feet, the meadowlark often seeks a perch on a fence or in the top of a tree adjacent to its chosen haunts. When so perched it commonly utters various of its shorter calls and whistles, accompanying each utterance by a quick spread of the tail, sufficient to flash into view the white areas on the outermost feathers.

The Western Meadowlark is for the most part a resident species here, being found in the same situations throughout the year. Those individuals which summer on the smaller meadows at the lower edge of the Transition Zone are probably forced by the snows of winter to descend to lower elevations, but this is the only seasonal change in the local distribution of the species. The large flocks which are to be seen in the fall and winter months roam about from field to field; but no part of the general range, at least to the west of the Sierras, is entirely deserted at any season.

In spring and early summer meadowlarks are to be seen chiefly in pairs; but throughout the fall and winter they forage in flocks numbering anywhere from 10 to 75 individuals. The flock organization is loose; in fleeing from danger each bird takes its own course, remaining with or leaving the flock at will. It usually happens that certain individual birds fail to take wing when a flock is first flushed, and these belated birds subsequently rise one after another as their field is invaded, to straggle off independently.

Spring is the period of maximum song for the meadowlark. Then, on warm sunny days, their songs ring clear and sharp from every direction in the newly grass-grown fields. Sometimes the birds sing while on the ground; more often they mount a clod or boulder, a fence post or a tree, and not infrequently they pour forth their melodious carolling while on the wing, after the manner of the Skylark of the Old World and of the Horned Lark of the New. At all times of the year their spirits and actions seem to be greatly influenced by the weather. On warm sunny days their voices are heard on all sides, and as the observer walks through the field the birds rise and fly off, their short wings beating rapidly and their white outer tail feathers showing conspicuously. But in cloudy or rainy weather their demeanor is entirely different. Then their voices are rarely heard, they skulk in the grass, loath to flush, preferring to slink quietly to one side rather than to take wing.

The nesting season is rather long, beginning in March or April and extending well into the summer. Three to 5 eggs constitute a full set, and often two broods are reared in a season. The nests are of grass, loosely woven, often overtopped by a flimsy 'dome' of grass, and having a 'runway' leading off through the adjacent vegetation. If approached while incubating, the bird usually manages to flush while the observer is still some distance away so that discovery of the nest is not easy. The most successful method of locating nests is for two persons to drag a long rope between them over a field where the birds are believed to be nesting. This usually results in forcing an incubating bird to rise directly from its nest, thereby disclosing the exact location of the latter. On June 26, 1916, Mr. Dixon found a nest of the meadowlark containing 5 eggs, situated beneath a bunch of salt grass at 7500 feet altitude on Parker Creek, Mono County. Four days later, at Mono Lake Post Office, he saw adults carrying food to their young.

As with so many other resident birds, the food of the meadowlark varies with the season. When the young are being fed, insects are abundant, and both young and adults subsist largely on animal food. At other seasons of the year grain forms a considerable percentage of the food. In the planting season meadowlarks occasionally do some damage to newly sprouting corn and other crops, but this damage seems to be more than offset by the good they do at other seasons of the year by destroying insects. A single meadowlark watched on Sentinel Meadows in Yosemite Valley, October 22, 1915, was engaged in catching the grasshoppers which then abounded there.

The meadowlark's annual molt occurs in the late summer or early fall. When the new plumage is acquired the black breast band is partially obscured by light-colored feather tippings, but these gradually wear off so that as the season advances this black crescent becomes more and more conspicuous. The colors throughout have become brightest by the beginning of the nesting season.