THE MERRY BOBOLINK. 87 



from himself, being dressed in a plain yellow- 

 ish-brown suit. For that reason Bryant calls 

 her " Kobert of Lincoln's Quaker wife." You 

 never would suppose that she was the wife of 

 so gallant and gayly-dressed a husband if you 

 did not see them in each other's company. 

 She is modest and (juie.t, hiding her nest in 

 the grass, often so cozily that it is difficult to 

 find. How do you suppose I have contrived to 

 discover the nest of this bird ? In this way : 



In breeding time I conceal myself in the 

 bushes or tall grass at the border of the mead- 

 ow where I can overlook the whole grassy 

 place. Then when I see a female flitting about, 

 looking for food or preening her feathers, I 

 watch her closely, until at length she flies 

 down into the grass. Keeping my eye on the 

 spot, I make a bee line for it, and usually suc- 

 ceed in starting her up from the nest near the 

 place into which she has dropped. It often re- 

 quires a good deal of patience to do this, as 

 the bird will refuse to go to her nest for a 

 long while. Then sometimes she will drop 

 into the grass at various points, and when you 

 steal up to the spot, there is no nest to be 

 found. She frequently alights at one S23ot, and 

 then creeps through the grass out of sight to 

 the place some distance away where her nest 



