30 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



is now a common breeding bird across the entire continent in the 

 northern States and the southern Provinces of Canada. It apparently 

 never liked to nest on the virgin prairies but it followed civilization 

 westward, and with the settlement of the country it found congenial 

 nesting sites in cultivated grasslands and clover fields. The westward 

 movement evidently began many years ago, for Ridgway (1877) 

 wrote: "The Bobolink seems to be spreading over all the districts of 

 the 'Far West' wherever the cultivation of cereals has extended. We 

 found it common in August in the wheat-fields at the Overland 

 Ranch, in Ruby Valley [Nevada]." W. L. McAtee (1919) says: 

 "The trend of the bird's breeding range to the northwest is unmistak- 

 able; for instance in the first edition of the A. O. U. Check-List, the 

 Western limit of the breeding range was given as the Great Plains ; in 

 the second edition, 1895, as Nevada, Idaho and Alberta, and in the 

 third edition, 1910, as British Columbia." 



The bobolink began to be common and well distributed in Montana 

 during the first decade of this century; Aretas A. Saunders (1921) 

 recorded it as "a common summer resident of all except extreme 

 eastern Montana, breeding in the wet meadows and irrigated fields 

 of the prairie region, and in the valleys of the mountain region. * * * 

 In most parts of the state the Bobolink is increasing with the extension 

 of irrigation." 



It apparently first appeared in Oregon about 1903. Gabrielson 

 and Jewett (1940) say: "The Bobolink seems to be a comparatively 

 new arrival in this State, as so good an observer as Bendire failed to 

 find it in the Harney Valley during his stay, through it is now a regular 

 resident of that area." 



And for California, Dawson (1923) writes: "It was the chief sur- 

 prise of a visit paid in 1912 to the Surprise Valley in Modoc County 

 to find the Bobolink common and, apparently, breeding." According 

 to Grinnell and Miller (1944), it is now a "summer resident in extreme 

 northeastern part of State, where there is at least one colony. Rare 

 straggler to other sections, chiefly in the autumn." 



Spring. — From its winter home in South America, as far south 

 as south Brazil, northern Argentina, and Paraguay, the bobolink 

 makes a very long and somewhat hazardous flight to its summer home, 

 which extends from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. It enters the 

 United States on a broad front, from Florida to Louisiana, with pos- 

 sibly a few migrating along the coast of Texas. 



Just when the bobolinks leave their winter home or by what route 

 they reach the north coast of South America does not seem to be 

 known. Thence the main flight is almost directly northward. Only 

 a few, perhaps only stragglers, follow an eastern route, through the 

 Lesser Antilles and the Bahamas to Florida. 



