138 Birds Every Child Should Know 



sparrows. A brown, streaked bird, with some 

 buff and a few white feathers, she shades into 

 the colours of the ground as well as they and 

 covers her loose heap of twigs, leaves and grasses 

 in the hay field so harmoniously that few 

 people ever find it or the clever sitter. 



As early as the Fourth of July, bobolinks 

 begin to desert the choir, being the first birds 

 to leave us. Travelling southward by easy 

 stages, they feed on the wild rice in the marshes 

 imtil, late in August, enormous flocks reach 

 the cultivated rice fields of South Carolina and 

 Georgia. 



On the way, a great transformation has 

 gradually taken place in the male boboHnk's 

 dress. At the North he wore a black, buff 

 and white wedding garment, with the unique 

 distinction of being lighter above than below; 

 but this he has exchanged, feather by feather, 

 for a striped, brown, sparrowy winter suit like 

 his mate's and children's, only with a little 

 more btiff about it. 



In this inconspicuous dress the reedbirds, or 

 ricebirds, as bobolinks are usually called south 

 of Mason and Dixon's line, descend in hordes 

 upon the rice plantations when the grain is 

 in the milk, and do several millions of dollars* 

 worth of damage to the crop every year, sad, 

 sad to tell. Of course, the birds are snared, 

 shot, poisoned. In southern markets half 



