BIRDS. 141 



injurious, forgetting entirely to look iifter them or to con- 

 sider their habits ;it other times and so great errors very 

 easily arise. 



As the Bobolink is one of our most eonnnon meadoAv 

 sono\sters and is withal a Sfreat tjivorite Avith many, a 

 AV^ord or two in regard to it will not be out of })laee. So 

 far as agriculture is concerned this ))ird is of less impor- 

 tance than many others, l)ut yet it has some interest 

 Avhen viewed only in this light. Jn the South they are 

 usually disliked l)ecause they pay more frequent visits to 

 the rice fields than is })leasant for the owners and indeed 

 they often do nuich damage to the crops though some- 

 times very beneficial to the cotton as we shall see before 

 closing. In New England however it seems to have left 

 its love for grain behind it and here it eats, some grass- 

 seeds indeed, but for the most part its food consists of 

 l)eetles, crickets, grasshoppers, and all sorts of insects. 

 They remain Avith us only during the warmest part of the 

 year, not often arriving before the middle of May and 

 leaving in large flocks early in September. Even if the 

 Bobolinks were not the useful bii'ds they are to us we 

 c(ndd well afford to tolerate their presence on account of 

 the joyous, tinkling Avarble thtit they so constantly give 

 us during tlie first part of their stay seeming the very 

 eml)odiment of l)uoyant life and he must be very melan- 

 choly Avho can long listen to their song Avithout catching 

 in s})ite of himself something of its cheeriness and hug- 

 ging himself for \'ery joy. 



One of our conunon birds, and one that should be 

 highly esteemed, is the Cat Bird, as it is one of the 

 greatest enemies of the A^arious kinds of insects we have. 

 The Blue Bird is an universal favorite and deserves so to 

 be, as besides being of a cheerful disposition it does good 

 service in Avarring against the insects. The Barn, (liff 

 and Bank swallows all cai)ture a great variety of the fly- 

 ing insects and sometimes destroy the so called a[)i)lc- 

 slugs in great numbers. 



