42 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



else threshed them off into the boat with branches cut for the purpose. This 

 could be done on dark nights. The following quotation from my report of the 

 trip will give an idea of the conditions there at that time regarding the Bobolink. 



On my arrival at the rice fields, colored gunners were seen in all directions, and 

 the popping of guns was continual. All the shooting appeared to be done by 

 creeping up to birds when they were sitting on stubble or on heaped-up rice, 

 selecting a time when a large number flocked together. One of the negroes said 

 that he often frightened up the birds in the rice fields and shot into the flocks as 

 they flew, but I saw nothing like this. One man with a full bag told me that he had 

 8 dozen birds at noon and that he killed 16 dozen the day before. Another stated 

 that he had six dozen so far, and shot about 12 or 13 dozen daily on an average, 

 but that formerly he used to get 14 or 15 dozen, or even more, when the birds 

 were numerous. He said it was not unusual formerly to kill 20 to 30 dozen at 

 night and sometimes even 40 dozen, but all the negroes that I talked with agreed 

 that they were getting very few at night now. Some said that nights must be 

 dark for successful hunting. They said they received 20 cents a dozen now for 

 "shoot" birds and 25 to 30 cents for "ketch" birds. One gunner said that when he 

 could not get 25 cents a dozen he would knock off. * * * 



Mr. James H. Rice, then chief game warden of South Carolina, wrote to me 

 that he had checked up the game shipped from Georgetown, South Carolina, in 

 one year. The result was 60,000 dozen of rice-birds and about 20,000 dozen of 

 Carolina Rails and Virginia Rails, but at the time of writing (1912) the number 

 shipped had fallen off greatly on account of the reduced number of the birds. 

 He also stated that these birds were not shot to protect the rice, as they were not 

 killed until they had grown fat on rice and until they would bring a good price in 

 the market. 



All this, happily, is now ancient history. The killing of songbirds 

 and their sale in the market for food is prohibited by law, and the 

 cultivation of rice in the Southeastern States in the main migration 

 path of the bobolink has been greatly reduced. But the bobolink 

 still has its natural enemies. Birds of prey still take their toll and 

 prowling quadrupeds still rifle the nests of these ground-nesting birds. 

 In low meadows the nests are sometimes flooded by heavy rains. 

 The wily cowbird finds the well-hidden nests and deposits one or two 

 of its unwelcome eggs; Friedmann (1929) gives only a few records, 

 but so few bobolinks nests are ever found that the scarcity of records 

 does not mean much. 



Voice. — Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following comprehen- 

 sive study of this subject: "The song of the bobolink is a loud, clear 

 series of short notes, no two consecutive notes on the same pitch. 

 The song begins on a comparatively low pitch. The pitch rises 

 higher and higher, and the notes follow each other more and more 

 rapidly as the song progresses. It is most commonly sung in flight, 

 the bird flying horizontally above the meadow as it sings. It is 

 occasionally sung from a perch in a tree or on the top of a tall weed. 

 The song from a perch is frequently curtailed and not full length, but 

 the flight song is usually complete. 



"The song is difficult to record and I have only 15 records of com- 



