BOBOLINK. SA | 
themselves with angry words and looks. The next 
year they, or their children, returned, and each 
took amicable possession of his old nesting-place, 
neither deigning to notice his neighbor.” 
VII. 
BOBOLINK ; REED-BIRD; RICE-BIRD. 
THouGH the bluebird brings the poet pictures 
of fields blooming with dandelions and blue vio- 
lets, and visions of all the freshness and beauty of 
nature, it tinges his thought with the tremulous 
sadness and longing of spring; but Robert o’ Lin- 
coln, the light-hearted laugher of June, brings 
him the spirit of the long bright days when the 
sun streams full upon meadows glistening with 
buttercups and daisies. 
Pray, have you seen the merry minstrel singing 
over the fields, or sitting atilt of a grass stem? 
And do you know what an odd dress he masquer- 
ades in? If not, let me warn you. One day at 
college some young observers came to me in great 
excitement. They had seen a new bird. It was 
a marvelous, unheard-of creature — its back was 
white and its breast black. What could it be? 
Later on, when we were out one day, a bobolink 
flew on to the campus. That was their bird. And 
to justify their description they exclaimed, ‘* He 
looks as if his clothes were turned around.” And 
so he does. 
