THE BOBOLINK. 337 



tlie Illinois and the shores of the St. Lawrence. Could the fact 

 be ascertained, which has been asserted by some writers, that the 

 emigration of these birds was altogether unknown in this part of 

 the continent, previous to the introduction of rice plantations, it 

 would certainly be interesting. Yet why should these migrations 

 reach at least a thousand miles beyond those places where rice is 

 now planted ; and this, not in occasional excursions, but regularly 

 to breed, and rear their young, where rice never was, and probably 

 never will be, cultivated ? Their so-recent arrival on this part of 

 the continent, I believe to be altogether imaginary ; because, though 

 there were not a single grain of rice cultivated within the United 

 States, the country produces an exuberance of food of which they 

 are no less fond. Insects of various kinds, grubs, May-flies, and 

 caterpillars; the young ears of Indian corn and the seed of the' 

 wild oats, or, as it is called in Pennsylvania, reeds (the Zizania 

 aquatica of Linnaeus), which grows in prodigious abundance along 

 the marshy shores of our large rivers, — furnish, not only them, but 

 millions of Rail, with a delicious subsistence for several weeks. I 

 do not doubt, however, that the introduction of rice, but more par- 

 ticularly the progress of agriculture, in this j^art of America, has 

 greatly increased their numbers, by multiplying their sources of 

 subsistence fifty-fold within the same extent of country. 



" In the month of April, or very early in May, the Rice Bunt- 

 ings, male and female, arrive within the southern boundaries of the 

 United States ; and are seen around the town of Savannah, in 

 Georgia, about the 4th of May, sometimes in separate parties of 

 males and females, but more generally promiscuously. They 

 remain there but a short time ; and, about the 1 2th of May, make 

 their appearance in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, as they did at 

 Savannah. While here, the males are extremely gay and full of 

 song, frequenting meadows, newly ploughed fields, sides of creeks, 

 rivers, and watery places ; feeding on May-flies and caterpillars, of 

 which they destroy great quantities. In their passage, however, 

 through Virginia at this season, they do great damage to the early 

 wheat and barley, while in its milky state. About the 20th of 

 May, they disappear, on their way to the North. Nearly at the 

 same time, they arrive in the State of New York, spread over 

 the whole New- England States, as far as the River St. Lawrence, 



22 



