BOBOLINKS 339 



males are the first ones we notice, these often suddenly appear- 

 ing in noisy flocks by themselves, and I don't recall ever seeing 

 a female Bobolink before May fifteenth. They begin in fall 

 to withdraw by late July and August and the latest I have 

 ever seen them is September fifth. 



One bright spring day I saw a flock of hundreds, all males, 

 perched in the bushes along a little travelled road which went 

 through a tract of overflowed meadow, later used as the nesting 

 site of this species. They were filling the air with their noise, 

 a medley of " chinks " " squeas " interspersed with snatches of 

 their rollicking song. It seems likely that the sexes usually 

 arrive separately. 



Later on in spring the males are in full song from early day 

 to late evening, singing in the air while taking their flight on 

 quick wings over the meadow, or on the ground or in some 

 tree or bush, uttering a great variety of rollicking notes. 

 Sombody has interpreted their song thus: "bobolink, bobolink, 

 spink-spank-spink, chee, chee, chee," but it is a hopeless task 

 to transpose this variable bubbling song to paper. 



The nest is placed on the ground at the foot of a tuft or 

 tussock of grass, sedge, or a small bush in a field or meadow. 

 It is composed of grass and fine weed stems, lined with finer 

 material of the same nature. The female seems to do all the 

 work of building and incubating, but the male does some little 

 towards feeding the young as by that time much of his exu- 

 berance has departed. The eggs are laid from rarely as early 

 as the first of June, more usually about the fifteenth, up to 

 the last of the month. A set of six found June 6, 1894, 

 were in a nest of fine grass placed in an open grassy field. 

 The nest measured one inch in depth outside, one half inch 

 inside, and three and a half externally by two and a half 

 internally in diameter. 



The eggs measure 0.85x0.62, 0.93x0.61, 0.93x0.62, 

 0.93 X 63, 0.90 x 0.62, 0.88 x 0.61. An egg is laid each day, 

 incubation usually does not begin until the set is completed, 



