836 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Female, yeUnwhh beneath; two stripes on the top of the head, and the upper 

 parts throughout, except the back of the neck and rump, and inchiding all the wing 

 feathers generally, dark-brown, all edged with brownish-yellow; which becomes 

 whiter nearer the tips of the quills; the sides sparsely streaked with dark -brown, 

 and a similar stripe behind the eye; there is a superciliar}'- and a median band of 

 j-ellow on the head. 



l^ength of male, seven and seventy one-hundredths inches; wing, three and 

 eighty-three one-hundredths; tail, three and tifteen one-hundredths inches. 



Hab. — Eastern United States to the high central plains. Seen fifty miles east 

 of Laramie. 



THIS well-known merry songster of the North, Reed 

 Bird or Ortolan of the Middle States, and Rice Bird 

 of the South, is abundantly distributed througliout most 

 sections of the eastern half of the continent, ranging from 

 the latitude of Quebec, in Lower Canada (which is its most 

 northern breeding point), through New England and its 

 latitude in summer, to Mexico, Central America, West 

 Indies, and the northern portions of the Southern Conti- 

 nent, where it passes the winter. 



Early in spring it makes its appearance in the Southern 

 United States, usually in small detached parties of from 

 eight to a dozen individuals, and proceeds leisurely to its 

 summer home in the North, generally at about the following 

 dates: being abundant in Georgia about April 20; in Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, " distributed about orchards and meadows 

 in flocks, from May 1st to 15th ; " arrives on Long Island, 

 N. Y., " about the 20th of May ; " and is abundant in the 

 latitude of Middle New England by the latter part of that 

 month. 



The males usually arrive in the North several days before 

 the females, during which interim they frequent meadows 

 and fields in cultivated districts, preferring them to thinly 

 settled localities, and soon become very tame and familiar, 

 considering the severity with which they were pursued by 

 the inhabitants of all the countries they traversed in their 

 migration, by whom they are regarded only as a pest and a 

 nuisance. The Bobolink knows when he has arrived among 

 his friends ; and the same bird which would have risen be- 



