I'liE oOL()(4isr. 



47 



the Bobolink is tliat in James Russell 

 Lowell's Blglow Papers. 



"June's bird's man, poet o' the year. 

 Gladness on wings, the Bobolink is here: 

 Half hid in tip-top apple-blooms he sings 

 Or climbs against the breeze on quivern' wings 

 Or givin' way to't in a mock despair. 

 Runs down a brook o' laughter thro' the air." 



And in the same poet's ''Under the 

 Willows" is the following enthusiasm 

 over "June's Bridsniaii:" 



But now, O rapture: sunshine winged and 



voiced. 

 Pipe blown through by the w.irm wild breath 



of the west 

 Shepherding his soft droves of fleecy f•I^ud. 

 Gladness of woods, skies, waters, all in one. 

 The Bobohnk has come, and like the soul 

 Of the sweet season vocal in a bird. 

 Gurgles in ecstasy we know not what 

 Save June 1 Dear June '. Now God be praised 



for June. 



The plain lirown yellow female is just 

 as sl?y, sil<-nt and retirinfr as her little 

 lord is noisy, attraotive and conspicii- 

 ous. And so little are they together 

 that yon might take him foi- a bachelor 

 bird with no wife or rising family in all 

 the meadow. But it appears his duty 

 to draw all curiosity from his seolnsive 

 mat;e and her well hidden nest unto 

 himself, and if this he truf^ how admir- 

 ably is he tilted to do it. Not a bird is 

 more worthy your observation or will 

 better repay you for a little watching. 

 I now draw on one of mv field note 

 books for June '2,'. 1896. Just the other 

 afternoon a male Bobolink llew up out 

 of the grass of a road side meadow a 

 little ahead of me and alighting on a 

 fence rail with his odd buff crest puffed 

 and wings raised began to "bow and 

 scrape" after his funny fashion, singing 

 with all his wanted energy and enthus- 

 iasm. Then he dashed off into the elm 

 and sang, then up into its higher 

 branches and sang, then he dropped 

 down into a bush less than ten feet 

 from me; thus singing and changing his 

 position as I moved leisurely along the 

 road; singing now in bush or tree now 

 in the air as he llew, he filled every 



pause with ,=ong and accompanied me 

 twenty or thirty rods up the road. It 

 certainly looked like a ruse on the part 

 of the little mnsician escorting me along 

 the borders of his territory. Was he 

 trying to coax me away from the spot 

 where Mrs B .bolink sat in her nest or 

 tended the biniies or was he only giv- 

 ing an exhibition of his dainty and 

 quaint self, or was all this music the 

 way he ha<1 of scolding me out of his 

 neighl)orlioo.l':'— certainly a delightful 

 dose of scolding to take and may no 

 one ever be inflicted with any more bit- 

 ter—which of these conclusions is the 

 answer to hi-; actions I leave, for the 

 reader to decide by his observation. 



Dr. J. M. Wheaton gives a happy dis- 

 cription of the Bobolink singing: 



■While hinging he raises and de- 

 presses his feathers, seems to contract 

 and expand his whole body, bows, nods, 

 shrugs, till he, resembles a French danc- 

 ing niaster.in uniform, singing, fiddling 

 danciti'jr and calling off at the same 

 timi^ 



Who would lind the Bobolink's nest 

 mu.^t have patience and some exper- 

 ienee at nest finding. It is usually very 

 well concealed the thickest clump of 

 .grass or clover in some deep depres- 

 sion, and the eggs five sometimes .six or 

 seven are well marked and colored to 

 harmonize with the ground; and as the 

 female Min.> off from the nest through 

 the grass beloiB taking wing you need 

 not think/ 1 he nest is somewhere near 

 the spot whence you saw her fly. If 

 you would find the B )bolink's nest go 

 out in the early davvu of a June morn- 

 ing when the whole world is fresh in 

 the jewelry of a heavy dew. When the 

 emerald lights of the eastern sky liave 

 scarcely begun to melt into the rose^ of 

 dawn, ere yet the clover has opened its 

 ])ink lips or unclasped its hands which 

 all night were folded as in prayer. Go 

 then into the meadows when a new day 

 is in the bud, and when Mrs. Bobolink 

 leaves her nest on foot at your ap- 



