Meadow Lark. 21 



all strong indications of valuable services rendered, with 

 unusually few drawbacks. The Year Book of the U. S, 

 Department of Agriculture, 1895, contains a valuable 

 article upon the economic relations of the meadow lark, 

 by Prof. F. E. L. Beal, in which the author states that this 

 species is one of the most useful allies to agriculture, 

 standing almost without a peer as a destroyer of noxious 

 insects. 



BOBOLINK. 



Our meadow rambles in May are enlivened by the 

 voices of more songsters than we heard in the preceding 

 month, and now the bobolinks jingle their merry notes 

 and especially engage our attention. Swinging on the 

 heads and spikes of the meadow weeds, or sitting in the 

 hedges or on the ground, now flying from the earth to 

 weed-top or hedge, or chasing one another in sportive 

 gallantry, the restless musicians pour forth a stream of 

 tinkling, bubbling melody. At our approach they arise 

 from the grass or weed-tops, and uttering their hurried, 

 jingling notes, they alight in the hedge, keeping together, 

 and all singing earnestly, until, as though by wonted 

 signal or arrangement, the music ceases abruptly and 

 silence ensues, soon to be broken by a more forcible out- 

 burst from every throat. The males are chiefly notice- 

 able, and they are now showily bedecked in their vernal 

 color of black, ornamented about the neck and shoulders 

 with buffy yellow. The females keep themselves more 

 hidden among the higher grass, perhaps somewhat 

 ashamed of their brown and duller yellow garments in 

 contrast to the gay robes of their sportive escorts. This 

 is the season of courtship and song, of " mad music " and 

 impassioned antics, of revelings unabated by thoughts of 

 household cares and life's sterner duties, the time when 

 Robert O'Lincoln affects only the dashing manners of a 

 gay and thoughtless cavalier. 



No North American bird has aroused more sentiment 

 than the bobolink, nor has any species received more 

 attention in the study of its habits. Its exuberant volu- 



