252 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



At the north, where the Bobolinks breed, they are not known to molest the 

 crops, confining their food almost entirely to insects, or the seeds of valueless 

 weeds, in the consumption of which they confer benefit, rather than liarm. 

 At the south they are accused of injuring the young wheat as they pass 

 northward in their spring migrations, and of plundering the rice plantations 

 on their return. About the middle of August they appear in almost innu- 

 merable flocks among the marshes of the Delaware River. There they are 

 known as Eeedbirds. Two weeks later they begin to swarm among the 

 rice plantations of South Carolina. There they take the name of RiceV)irds. 

 In October they again pass on southward, and make another halt among the 

 West India Islands. There they feed upon the seeds of the Guinea-grass, 

 upon which they become exceedingly fat. In Jamaica they receive a new 

 appellation, and are called Butterbirds. They are everywhere sought after 

 by sportsmen, and are shot in immense numbers for the table of the epicure. 

 More recently it has been ascertained that these birds feed greedily upon 

 the larvae of the destructive cotton-worm, and in so doing render an im- 

 mense service to the cultivators of Sea Island cotton. 



Dr. Bryant, in his visit to the Bahamas, was eye-witness to the migrations 

 northward of these birds, as they passed through those islands. He first 

 noted them on the 6th of May, towards sunset. A number of flocks — he 

 counted nine — were flying to the westward. On the following day the coun- 

 try was filled with these birds, and men and boys turned out in large num- 

 bers to shoot them. He examined a quantity of them, and all were males 

 in full plumage. Numerous flocks continued to arrive that day and the 

 following, which was Sunday. On Monday, among those that were shot 

 were many females. On Tuesday but few were to be seen, and on Wednes- 

 day they had entirely disappeared. 



Near Washington, Dr. Coues observed the Bobolink to be only a spring 

 and autumnal visitant, from May 1st to the 15th distributed abundantly 

 about orchards and meadows, generally in flocks. In autumn they fre- 

 quented in immense flocks the tracts of Zizania aquatica, along the Potomac, 

 from August 20 to October. 



The Bobolink invariably builds its nest upon the ground, usually in a 

 meadow, and conceals it so well among the standing grass that it is very 

 difficult of discovery until the grass is cut. The female is very wary in leav- 

 ing or in returning to her nest, always alighting upon the ground, or rising 

 from it, at a distance from her nest. The male bird, too, if the nest is ap- 

 proached, seeks to decoy off the intruder by his anxiety over a spot remote 

 from the object of his solicitude. The nest is of the simplest description, 

 made usually of a few flexible stems of grasses carefully interwoven into a 

 sliallow and conqiact nest. The eggs, five or six in number, have a dull 

 wliite ground, in some tinged with a light drab, in others with olive. They 

 are generally spotted and blotched over the entire egg with a rufous-brown, 

 intermingled with lavender. They are pointed at one end, and measure .90 

 by .70 of an inch. They have but one brood in a season. 



