340 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



and the eggs hatch in fourteen days. The female usually runs 

 through the grass to and from the nest, rarely flying directly 

 up from it unless she is unexpectedly and suddenly frightened 

 by being nearly stepped upon. As a pair of birds make more 

 or less disturbance when a person comes into the field where 

 they are nesting, it is hard to locate the nest unless it is found 

 by accident or by flushing the bird from under feet. By two 

 persons dragging a rope between them at dusk or on a very 

 rainy day and proceeding through the field, the bird may be 

 flushed from along the line of the rope and the nest located. 



Five to seven, generally five or six eggs are laid. These are 

 pearl gray or reddish brown, spotted and blotched with brown, 

 chocolate, heliotrope, purple and lavender. The heavier mark- 

 ings are usually toward the larger end of the egg, though 

 many are evenly spotted throughout. 



Though the Bobolink is common and generally distributed 

 in the State it must of course be sought in its favorite habitat, 

 and it is useless for anybody to expect to find it in the back- 

 woods. In fields, meadows, the grassy tracts along rivers and 

 streams and similar places are where it can be confidently 

 sought. 



It has been denied that the species ever occurred in Aroos- 

 took County, but it has been reported from there by at least 

 three responsible observers. Mr. Batchelder found it at Fort 

 Fairfield, Mr. Morin reports it from Fort Kent and I found it 

 in the breeding season in the bottom lands of the Woolastook 

 between St. Francis and Fort Kent under conditions which 

 indicated it was certainly breeding. There is no reason why 

 it should not be common locally through many sections of 

 Aroostook County, and it occurs throughout the adjoining 

 portion of the British Provinces north of Maine, being reported 

 by many observers in Macoun's Catalogue of Canadian Birds. 



The food of the Bobolink with us is largely of an insect 

 nature, and they eat almost anything in that line which may 

 be found about their homes, such as beetles, grasshoppers, 



