THE BOBOLINK 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



etc il^ational ^association ot Audubon Societies 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 38 



Often at night, during August and September, and also, but less commonly, 

 in May, we may hear the watchword of the Bobolink as high in the air he flies 

 through the darkness on his journey to or from his winter home. It is only 

 a simple note, repeated at intervals — link, link — ^but so unlike the call of any 

 other bird that we can name its author as certainly as though lie were singing 

 his inimitable song. 



Let us first learn where Bobolink spends the summer, and then follow him 

 on his journey to his winter quarters. Although a bird of eastern rather than 

 of western North America, Bobolink appears to have followed man westward, 

 as grain fields have appeared on the prairies and plains. Today, therefore, 

 Bobolinks are found during the summer from northern New Jersey northward 

 to Nova Scotia and west between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels of latitude to 

 the Rock}' mountains; thence, in much smaller numbers, they have been re- 

 corded from Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and British Columbia, west, as 

 well as east, of the Cascade mountains. 



Where, now, does Bobolink winter? Not with the Red-winged Blackbirds 

 in the South Atlantic and Gulf states, or even in the West Indies or Central 

 America, nor yet in northern South America, but far south of the Amazon in 

 the great campos or prairies of southwestern Brazil and the marshes of La 

 Plata. From British Columbia to Argentina, 6,800 miles in as straight a line 

 as one can lay a ruler on the chart. But, however, it may be with the Crow, " as 

 the Bobolink flies" is not always the straightest line. Let us see, therefore, what 

 route or routes the Bobolink follows. 



At once we make an interesting discovery. Whether a Bobolink spends his 

 summer in Massachusetts or British Columbia, he leaves the United States 

 through Florida. If Bobolinks are found in Texas or Mexico, they are merely 

 birds which have lost their wa}'. The port of departure as well as of entry is the 

 Florida peninsula, or, at least, the waters that bound it. 



But it may well be asked, why do not the Bobolinks of the western United 

 States migrate southward with other western birds into Mexico over the all- 

 land route? 



To which it may be answered, that the Bobolink is not truly a western bird. 

 We have seen that he probably has settled in the far West in only recent years. 

 So, in returning to his winter quarters, he retraces his steps, as it were, going 

 back over the same countr\- through which his ancestors gradually extended 



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