1902] Moore— The Bobolink's Love for its Home. 235 



THE BOBOLINK'S LOVE FOR ITS HOME. 



i 



By W. H. Moore, Scotch Lake, N.B. 



(Read before the Ornithological Section of the Entomological Society of 



Ontario.) 



In the little experience the writer has had in ornitholog'ical 

 study, there is no incident more deeply impressed upon his mind 

 than the love of a pair of bobolinks for their home. 



June i6th, 1900, the writer and his brother C. were clearing 

 drift material from a piece of island meadow, which overflows 

 during- the spring freshet in the St. John River. A bobolink nest 

 containing three eggs was discovered, but not until the nest had 

 been overturned and the eggs scattered about. The nest and eggs 

 were gathered together and put in our lunch basket and taken 

 home. Next day (June 17th) we were again employed in clearing 

 up the drift. As we were about leaving for home, C. inquired 

 what kind of nest that was, with one egg in it ? On answering 

 that I did not know of any nest there, but that that was where I 

 had obtained the bobolink's nest the day before, he said tnere was 

 a nest with one egg. Sure enough, in the depression where the 

 nest had been, the birds had collected a tew of the scattered straws 

 of the nest and on them deposited an egg. 



What impressed the writer most strongly was that the birds 

 should repair the nest at all, for on just such occasions song and 

 Savannah sparrows' nests had been partly destroyed, but the old 

 birds were discouraged, and never returned to finish incubating. 

 It was for this reason that the bobolink eggs were taken the first 

 day. The egg laid on the 17th was taken and makes one of a set 

 of four eggs, which afford an interesting bit of bobolink history. 

 When cutting the grass on our island lot, young birds are 

 often found which cannot fly, and when it happens to be a bobo- 

 link's nest, the old female will fly about over the spot searching 

 for its young. The flight at such times is undulating in small 

 circles, but often Vvhen no person is near, the mother bird alights 

 and searches in the grass to find the young and teed them. If the 

 young are large enough to leave the nest, they are led to a place 

 f safety. The male seems to be much less concerned in respect 



