166 



THE OOLOGIST. 



The nest is of the simplest descrip- 

 tion, made usually of a few flexible 

 stems of grasses carefully interwov- 

 en into a shallow and frail nest. 



The eggs, five in number, are laid 

 about the middle of June. Have a 

 dull white ground, in some tinged 

 with a light drab, in others olive. 

 They are generally spotted and 

 blotched over the entire egg with a 

 rufous-brown; intermingled with lav- 

 ender. They are often pointed at one 

 end, sometimes nearly round, and 

 measure from about .55 x .79 to .66 

 x 90. The average is about .63 x .85 

 of an inch. They have but one brood 

 in a season. 



In some eggs, especially those 

 found in more northern localities, the 

 ground-color is drab, with a strong 

 tinge of purple. Over this is dif- 

 fused a series of obscure lavender 

 color, and then overlying these are 

 larger and bolder blotches of wine- 

 colored brown. In a few eggs, long 

 and irregular lines of dark purple, so 

 deep as to be undistinguishable from 

 black are added. 



From June 12th to July 1st, the 

 brood hatches. Then the male is 

 very busy feeding them. Their food 

 is largely insectivorous: grasshop- 

 pers, crickets, beetles, spiders, with 

 seeds for variety. When the brood 

 is quite large they are compelled to 

 shift for themselves. This occurs 

 about the 15th of July. 



The song of the male is musical, 

 rippling, and jolly; the birds cease 

 singing at the close of the nesting 

 season. 



About the first of August the male 

 changes his bright coat for one like 

 that of its mate. About September 

 1st, journeying south, they are shot 

 for the table in Pennsylvania, under 

 the name of reed-birds. 



In late autumn they appear in the 

 cultivated fields of rice in South Car- 



olina and Georgia. They are here 

 known as rice birds and do great 

 damage to the rice crops. While re- 

 cent investigations in the south have 

 disclosed the gratifying fact that 

 they devour, in immense numbers the 

 larvae of the cotton worm, which sc* 

 frequently threatens the entire cot- 

 ton crop of the south. 



From here they go to their distant 

 winter quarters, south of the Amazon 

 river, stopping a while in the West 

 Indies, and living on a grass called 

 the guinea-grass. 



C. S. PRBSCOTT, 



Lynn, Mass. 



Four is often a complete set of Bob- 

 olink. The rare nests that are found 

 elevated from the ground a few inch- 

 es in tufts of grass are much more 

 bulky in construction. The typical 

 ground nest can hardly be picked up 

 owing to its frailness. 



The nests of the Bobolink are 

 among the most elusive of Oological 

 disiderata. 



One morning early in June (can't 

 give exact date as it was before I 

 began keeping notes, but about June 

 2, 1889, would be close), the Editor 

 stepped into a thin meadow of short 

 June grass at just sunrise and on 

 walking through it, noticed that some 

 birds had left plain tracks in the dew 

 on the short grass. 



Out of pure curiosity, I followed 

 up one trail and found a nest of Bob- 

 olink containing 5 eggs. By follow- 

 ing other similar trails, I secured six 

 sets of four and five eggs each.. 



All the birds had left the nests at 

 the warning cry of the males when I 

 stepped into the field and ran on the 

 ground from 20 to 50 feet before fly- 

 ing to the fence. 



I have never found conditions just 

 right to locate them this way since. 



They usually nest in new clover 



