242 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Sam guaranteed protection under the Federal 

 Migratory Bird Law of 1013. 



In the Northern States, Robert has always been 

 loved as the handsome and rollicking minstrel 

 of the meadows. In its invariable and infectious 

 spontaneity, and the fine frenzy of its deliv- 

 ery, his song stands alone in the musical utter- 

 ances of American birds. Thoreau caught the 

 spirit and the technique of the effort when he 

 wrote " This flashing, tinkling meteor bursts 

 through the expectant meadow air, leaving a train 

 of tinkling notes behind." The song bafiles de- 

 scription in words, or reproduction by any one 

 musical instrument. William Cullen Bryant's 

 oft-quoted poem contains lines which do some 

 justice to the spirit of the song and of the scene 

 of its delivery, but the refrain, " Bobolink, bobo- 

 link ; spink, spank, spink," is a feeble effort to 

 reduce its notes to spoken words. Mr. Dawson's 

 transliteration. Oh. gcezclcr, geczeler, gilipity, 

 onkelcr, oozelcr, 00, really is a clever rendition, 

 in that it suggests clearly the essentially liquid 

 and vowel character of the opening notes. But 



Photo by A. A. Allen 



FEMALE BOBOLINK 



Photo by H. T. Middleton 



REED BIRD 

 The Bobolink in fall plumage 



it should be added that, having proceeded thus 

 far, and in a rapid but comparatively restrained 

 manner, Robert is likely to become suddenly a 

 sort of hysterical music-box, and to produce a 

 burst of sound pyrotechnics which make one fear 

 that the next second he is going to explode out- 

 right and vanish in a cloud of feathers. This 

 seems all the more probable when the hysteria 

 occurs, as it often does, while he is on the wing. 

 There seems to be no record that Robert has 

 ever actually blown up, but as far as many peo- 

 ple are concerned he literally disappears from 

 the earth very soon after his family responsi- 

 bilities are discharged ; for the fall molt com- 

 pletely transforms his appearance. The sharply 

 outlined black, white, and buff uniform then gives 

 way to a dull mottling of the same colors, which 

 approaches the normal plumage of his striped and 

 denuire wife. Then he becomes the Reed-bird, 

 and as such has to run the gauntlet of gunners 

 who lie in wait for him on his southern migra- 

 tion, in order that banqueters may have their 

 " reed-birds on toast." George Gladden. 



When Robert on his southward migration 

 reaches Jamaica, B. \Y. I., he assumes another 

 alias — and a very appropriate one — Butter- 

 bird. Fresh from the rice-fields of the southern 



