34 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



loosely surrounded with coarse grasses or weed stems and thinly 

 lined with finer grasses. The nest is sometimes placed in an old 

 wagon rut or in a depression made by a horse's hoof. A. D. Du Bois 

 mentions in his notes a nest that was in a hollow 3 inches in diameter 

 by 1 inch deep; the measurements of the nest were: "Diameter 2.12 

 to 2.25 inches; depth 1.62 inch." This was evidently quite typical 

 as to size. He mentions another nest that was "sunk among the 

 bases of the standing tall grases; but there was no hollow in the 

 ground; the bottom of the nest was approximately at the ground 

 surface." 



What the flimsy nest of the bobolink lacks in construction it makes 

 up for in concealment; it is almost invariably placed in a dense stand 

 of tall vegetation, in the long grass of some luxuriant mowing field 

 or damp meadow, in a field of clover, alfalfa, or in a thick growth 

 of weeds or other wild plants. 



Elisha Slade (1881a), who formerly lived in a town near me and 

 was well known locally, describes two most remarkable nests. The 

 first was — 



occupying the space between four stalks of a growing narrow dock (Rumex crispus). 

 This nest was suspended from four points of its circumference, 90° apart, to the 

 four stalks of the plant which grew from the same root. The bottom of the nest 

 was about six inches above the ground. It was constructed entirely of vegetable 

 material and consisted of two distinctly separate parts. A hemispherical cup, in 

 one piece of coarse but neatly woven cloth, very strong and very light, was fastened 

 to the living, growing supports by strong fibres passing around each stalk above 

 and below a joint firmly woven into the rim of the cup with some of the longer 

 strings interlacing the sides. * * * 



In this hanging basket was an elaborate lining of very soft blades of grass be- 

 tween which and the cup was an elastic padding. The woven cup was about five 

 inches in diameter and five inches deep, the padding about half an inch thick, and 

 the lining about the same thickness. The whole structure, dock and nest, swayed 

 in every passing breeze but the nest was so strongly fastened to the stalks and the 

 plant so securely held by the nest that it would have required a hurricane or 

 tornado to have blown it away. 



He claims to have found a similar nest, 22 years later, at the same 

 place and in a similar plant. This all sounds like a fairy tale, but is 

 printed here for what it is worth, as an interesting suggestion that 

 the cloth cup may have been placed there by human hands. It seems 

 incredible that a bobolink could have built such a nest, or even been 

 tempted to occupy it. 



The evidence indicates that the male selects the general locality for 

 the nesting, which he occupies until the female arrives and is per- 

 suaded to remain there; she, then, probably selects the exact spot in 

 which the nest is to be placed and does all the simple construction. 

 Alexander F. Skutch, in his notes from Ithaca, N. Y., says: "In a 



