DlckcisseL 29 



the Dame sounded in the notes he utters, and is now 

 Dickcissel. Among the boys of the farm he has other 

 local and ftimiliar titles, for his chant is ever obtrusive as 

 it rises from hedges, bushes, and tops of meadow weeds, 

 and persons who dwell in rural localities have ample op- 

 portunity to learn something of his evident traits and 

 characteristics. 



The summer home of Dickcissel is eastern United 

 States, extending northward to southern New England 

 and Ontario, and the States bordering the great lakes. 

 He ranges westward to the edge of the great plains, fre- 

 quently to southeastern United States on the migration. 

 His winter home is in tropical regions, extending as far 

 south as northern South America, This bird is said to 

 breed chiefly north of the Southern States. Dickcissel is 

 not so hardy as most of the sparrows and some other 

 members of his family, for he seldom reaches our latitude 

 before the last week of April. He comes with the Bal- 

 timore oriole, the rose-breasted grosbeak, the warbling 

 vireo, and other birds which do not appear until the 

 trees are unfolding their buds and expanding their blos- 

 soms. Dickcissel, however, cares little for the buds and 

 blossoms, for he is not a frequenter of the trees except 

 such as border the meadows and cornfields; and when he 

 reaches our locality at the close of his long journey from 

 the tropics, he finds the hedges bare or only beginning to 

 don their verdure. Apparently enjoying the change from 

 tropical luxuriance to the northern nakedness of the 

 hedges, and knowing that the rapidly unfolding beauty 

 of the vegetation will soon compensate him for the dis- 

 comforts of travel, he mounts to his favorite perch and 

 immediately voices his satisfaction with his lot, antici- 

 pating a season of continuous melody and content. 



The Dickcissels show a decided preference for mead- 

 ows, cornfields, and unbroken prairie; and along the 

 hedges and fences bordering such resorts they alight ab- 

 ruptly after their short flights from the ground, and 

 chant their accustomed strains until they are disturbed or 

 impulse leads them to flit farther along the hedge or back 

 into the meadow grass. Clover fields have a great attrac- 

 tion for them, and in the vicinity of clover patches they 



