ch so as to indicate a marked diversity in the organic
structure of their larynxes. Much as I have listened to their
minstrelsy, I have never known one kind to borrow from the musical
repertory of the other. True, there are strains in the arias of the
westerners that closely resemble the clear, liquid whistle of the
eastern larks, but they occur right in the midst of the song and are
part and parcel of it, and therefore afford no evidence of mimicry or
amalgamation. Even the trills of the grassfinch and the song-sparrow
have points of similarity; does that prove that they borrow from each
other, or that espousals sometimes occur between the two species?

The habiliments of the two forms of larks are more divergent than would
appear at first blush. Above, the coloration of _neglecta_ (the western)
is paler and grayer than that of _magna_, the black markings being less
conspicuous, and those on the tertials and middle tail-feathers being
arranged in narrow, isolated bars, and not connected along the shaft.
While the flanks and under tail-coverts of _magna_ are distinctly washed
with buff, those of _neglecta_ are white, very faintly tinged with buff,
if at all. The yellow of the throat of the eastern form does not spread
out laterally over the malar region, as does that of the western lark.
All of which tends to prove that the two forms are distinct.

Early in the spring of 1901 the writer took a trip to Oklahoma in the
interest of bird-study, and found both kinds of meadow-larks extremely
abundant and lavish of their melodies on the fertile prairies. He
decided to carry on a little original investigation in the field of
inquiry now under discussion. One day, in a draw of the prairie, he
noticed a western meadow-lark which was unusually lyrical, having the
skill of a past-master in the art of trilling and gurgling and fluting.
Again and again I went to the place, on the same day and on different
days, and invariably found the westerner there, perching on the fence or
a weed-stem, and greeting me with his exultant lays. But, mark: no
eastern lark ever intruded on his preserve. In other and more distant
parts of the broad field the easterners were blowing their piccolos, but
they did not encroach on the domain of the lyrical westerner, who, with
his mate--now on her nest in the grass--had evidently jumped his claim
and held it with a high hand. In many other places in Oklahoma and
Kansas where both species dwell, I have noti