BOBOLINK 29 



killing of "reed birds" for the market, but this is now prohibited by- 

 law. But the New England population of bobolinks has not been 

 built up to its former proportions. A local cause here that has also 

 had its effect in driving away our breeding birds is a decided change 

 in the time and in the methods of harvesting our hay crops. Former- 

 ly, the grass in our mowing fields, the favorite nesting places for 

 bobolinks, was cut by hand and rarely before the first or middle of 

 July. By that time the young bobolinks were out of the nest and 

 safely on the wing. Now the mowing is done earlier, usually before 

 the end of June, the grass is cut close with mowing machines, and the 

 hay is scraped off by machine rakes. Many young birds would thus 

 be killed while still in the nests or before they were able to escape by 

 flight. This naturally drove the birds away to seek safer nesting 

 grounds. Furthermore, with the passing of the horse much less hay 

 has been needed, and there are fewer fields of the tall grass so much 

 preferred by the bobolinks. The haying fields in Massachusetts are 

 largely a thing of the past. 



Southern New England is not the only place in the east where the 

 bobolink has decreased in numbers. Robie W. Tufts writes to me 

 from Nova Scotia: "My notes indicate a marked scarcity of these 

 birds during the summer of 1919 and again in 1920. They were 

 noticeably scarce again during the summer of 1930, and during the 

 past summer of 1945 seemed alarmingly scarce." Ludlow Griscom 

 (1923) wrote referring to the New York city region : "This distinguished 

 songster was formerly a common summer resident throughout our 

 territory, but is now found only in the outlying and more rural dis- 

 tricts. Its great decrease started fifty years ago when trapping the 

 males for cage-bird purposes was a profession on large scale." Todd 

 (1940) remarks, for Pennsylvania: "Observers from various parts of 

 the state agree that since the early twenties there has been a marked 

 falling off in the numbers of this species." And even as far west as 

 Minnesota the bobolink is yielding ground, but not for the same 

 reasons. Thomas S. Roberts (1932) writes: "There is some indication 

 that the Bobolink has been decreasing in numbers in recent years 

 and that, locally, it has almost disappeared from lowlands where it 

 was formerly abundant. Its place has been taken by the Brewer's 

 Blackbird, which has swept eastward across the state and is now 

 abundant even in the southeastern counties. It lives and nests here 

 under exactly the same conditions as the Bobolink and, being a 

 larger and more aggressive bird, there is reason to fear that it is 

 driving the Bobolink from its former domain." 



While the bobolink has been discouraged and its numbers have been 

 depleted in many of its eastern breeding resorts, it has been encouraged 

 to extend its range and to increase in abundance farther west until it 



