Tell-tale Tails

Tails of Western Meadowlarks
Lewis wrote: "this differs from ours in the form of
the tail which is pointed, being formed of
feathers of unequal length..."

The greatest difference between the eastern and western meadowlark, Audubon agreed later,

"is in the form of the tail, which in this [western] species is nearly square, and consequently has the feathers nearly equal, whilst in the common one [the eastern, or oldfield lark], the tail is rounded, and the two lateral feathers are nearly three quarters of an inch shorter than the middle ones; besides which, the central tail-feathers of the present [western] bird are narrowly barred, and not scalloped on their margins as in Sturnella Ludoviciana [LOO-doh-vee-cee-ANNA, of (the Territory of) Louisiana].¹

Tails of Eastern Meadowlarks

Audubon's Eastern Meadowlark, Sturnella magna²

--Joseph Mussulman, 7/03

1. Audubon's Multimedia Birds of America, http://www.abirdshome.com/Audubon/VolVII/00799.html

2. Roger Tory Peterson and Virginia Marie Peterson, Audubon's Birds of America (Audubon Society Baby Elephant Folio; New York: Abbeville Press, 1981), Plate XX.