BOBOLINK 45 



birds" in the Southern States, where they did great damage in the 

 ripening ricefield in the fall and some harm to the sprouting grain in 

 the spring; many were also shot there for food. 



Coues and Prentiss (1883) comment on the reed-bird market: "The 

 familiar 'clink' of the Reed-bird begins to be heard over the tracts of 

 wild oats along the river banks about the 20th of August, and from 

 that time until October the restaurants are all supplied with 'Reed- 

 birds' — luscious morsels when genuine; but a great many Blackbirds 

 and English Sparrows are devoured by accomplished gourmands, who 

 nevertheless do not know the difference when the bill of fare is printed 

 correctly and the charges are sufficiently exorbitant." 



Economic status. — Much information *on the economic status of 

 the bobolink will be found in the foregoing paragraphs and need not 

 be repeated here. While it is with us on its breeding grounds there is 

 no doubt that it is a beneficial species. Most of the insects that it 

 eats are of harmful species, or those of no value. The greater part of 

 its vegetable food consists of weed seeds, or the seeds of useless plants; 

 much of the very little grain it takes is waste. On its migration south- 

 ward it feeds mainly on the seeds of wild plants, such as wild rice or 

 wild oats, of no economic value. But, in the cultivated ricefields of 

 the Southern States, it does, or has done, immense damage to the 

 ripening grain in the fall and the sprouting grain in the spring. A few 

 quotations from Beal (1900) will serve to illustrate the damage 

 formerly done in the ricefields. Mr. J. A. Hayes, Jr., of Savannah, 

 Ga., reported that a field — 



which consisted of 125 acres of rice that matured when birds were most plentiful, 

 and which, in spite of 18 bird-minders and 11 half kegs of gunpowder, yielded only 

 18 bushels per acre of inferior rice, although it had been estimated to yield 45 

 bushels. * * * 



As a sample of actual loss, the following statement, furnished by Colonel 

 Screven, gives his account with the bobolink at Savannah, Ga., for the year 1885: 



Cost of ammunition $245. 50 



Wages of bird-minders 300. 00 



Rice destroyed, say 400 bushels 500. 00 



1, 045. 50 



Colonel Screven cultivated in that year 465 acres of tidal land, so that he has 

 estimated a loss of less than 1 bushel of rice to the acre, while most of the rice 

 growers estimate the loss at from 4 to 5 bushels. 



Captain Hazzard states that in cultivating from 1,200 to 1,400 acres of rice, he 

 has paid as much as $1,000 for bird-minding in one spring. 



He wrote to Major Bendire (1895) : 



The Bobolinks make their appearance here during the latter part of April. * * * 

 Their next appearance is in a dark yellow plumage, as the Ricebird. There is no 

 song at this time, but instead a chirp which means ruin to any rice found in the 

 milk. My plantation record will show that for the past ten years, except when 



