26 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



cold, black mire. Just as I rise ruefully from such a 

 plight, a female bobolink bolts up from the grass, half- 

 way along the line, clutches a blade of grass, looks back an 

 instant wonderingly, then dives quickly into the grassy 

 maze, and no amount of beating can flush her. A bit of 

 white rag is hastily tied to the grass near where she rose, 

 and the careful search begins. A dozen square yards are 

 slowly examined, foot by foot, but vainly; when a last 

 faint-hearted, sweeping glance reveals the nest, half 

 crushed by my feet, well hidden in a little grassy bog. It 

 is naught but a dainty, spirally-wrought cup of slender 

 grasses, flush with the sphagnum tops, but it holds five 

 eggs, quite fresh, of the clear-grounded, dark-blotched 

 type." 



The nest of the bobolink is constructed without regard 

 to elegance, but rather with a view to concealment, and in 

 the simplest manner to serve its purpose. The natural de- 

 pression chosen, or the cavity formed by the foot of a 

 horse or a cow in wet seasons, is lined with dried grasses, 

 which are coiled into a circular cup. Dried stems of 

 weeds add to the mimicry of the nest. Furthermore, the 

 eggs have a protective coloration, being a dingy or gray- 

 ish white, or bluish gray, varying into drab, olive, and 

 other similar hues, and thus showing a wonderful variation 

 in color and markings. The edges of the markings appear 

 to be somewhat blurred, thus forming a blending of colors 

 which enhances the safety of the eggs from discovery by 

 prying eyes. An average Qgg is .85 by .65 of an inch in 

 length and breadth. The complement consists of four or 

 five eggs, and six or seven are not unusual. 



With the advance of the breeding season the songs of 

 the gay bobolinks are heard less frequently, and the de- 

 mure, sobered manners of the males, patientlj^ caring for 

 their families, are quite in contrast to their wanton habits 

 in the earlier season. The poet is happily faithful to his 

 muse and to nature in this picture of EobertO' Lincoln as 

 a devoted husband and father. He says, 



<' * * * that devil-may-care, the bobolink, 



Kemembering duty, in mid-quavers stops 

 Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink, 



And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops, 

 A decorous bird of business" — 



