394 HISTORY OF THE 



due time assume the development of mature birds, and all wear 

 the sober plumage of the mother. And now there also appears 

 a surprising change in the appearance of our gaily attired musi- 

 cian. His showy plumage of contrasting white and black, so 

 conspicuous and striking, changes with almost instant rapidity 

 into brown and drab, until he is no longer distinguishable, either 

 by plumage or note, from his mate or young. 



"At the north, where the Bobolink breeds, they are not 

 known to molest the crops, confining their food almost entirely 

 to insects, or the seeds of valueless weeds, in the consumption 

 of which they confer benefit rather than harm. At the south, 

 they are accused of injuring the young wheat as they pass north- 

 ward in their spring migrations, and of plundering the rice 

 plantations on their return. About the middle of August they 

 appear in almost innumerable flocks among the marshes of the 

 Delaware river. There they are known as the Reedbirds. Two 

 weeks later they begin to swarm among the rice plantations of 

 South Carolina. There they take the name of Ricebirds. In 

 October they again pass on southward, and make another halt 

 among the West India Islands. There they feed upon the seeds 

 of the Guinea grass, upon which they become exceedingly fat. 

 In Jamaica they receive a new appellation, and are called But- 

 terbirds. They are everywhere sought after by sportsmen, and 

 are shot in immense numbers for the table of the epicure. More 

 recently it has been ascertained that these birds feed greedily 

 upon the larva of the destructive cotton worm, and in so doing 

 render an immense service to the cultivators of Sea Island cot- 

 ton." 



Their nests are placed in a depression on the ground, in the 

 grass, on the low bottom lands, composed of slender, wire-like 

 stems of grasses. Eggs four or five, .85x. 63; ashy white, 

 evenly specked with light drab to grayish and reddish brown, 

 and pale surface markings in the shell; in form, oval. A set 

 of four, taken June 2d, 1867, at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, from a 

 nest on marshy grounds, only measure: .78x. 63, .80x. 61, .80x 

 .63, .85X.63. 



