Birds of Pennsylvania. 165 



in the shell. The nests are cunningly hidden, and often further 

 screened from threatened observation by ingenious devices of the 

 parents." From. Birds of North west. The food of these birds, during 

 their spring sojourn in Pennsylvania is composed chiefly of different 

 kinds of terrestrial insects, also the seeds of various weeds, grasses, etc. 

 I have examined the stomach contents of twenty-seven Bobolinks 

 (captured in Chester county, Pa., May, 1879-80-82 and 83), and found 

 that eighteen had fed exclusively on beetles, larvae, ants and a few 

 earth-worms ; five, in addition to insects and larvee, showed small seeds, 

 and particles of green vegetable materials, apparently leaves of plants ; 

 the four remaining birds revealed only small black and yellow col- 

 ored seeds. After the breeding season, the Reed-birds (both sexes), 

 about the middle of August, again make their appearance in our 

 meadows and grain fields. At this time, although various forms of in- 

 sects are abundant, they subsist almost entirely on a vegetable diet. 

 They visit the corn fields, and in company with the English Sparrow, 

 prey to a more or less extent on the corn ; like the Sparrow they tear 

 open the tops of the husk and eat the milky grain. Fields of Hunga- 

 rian grass are resorted to and the seed eagerly devoured. The differ- 

 ent seeds of weeds and grasses which grow so luxuriantly in the 

 marshy swamps and meadows are likewise fed upon with avidity. 



The following interesting remarks, relative to the Ricebirds, are 

 taken from the annual report of the Agricultural Department, for the 

 year 1886, by Dr. 0. Hart Merriam, ornithologist, United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture Washington. D. G. 



"One of the most important industries of the Southern States, the 

 cultivation of rice, is crippled and made precarious by the bi-annual 

 attacks of birds. Many kinds of birds feed upon rice, but the bird 

 which does more injury than all the rest is the Bobolink {Dolichonyx 

 oryzivorus). * * * The name of "Ricebird" is familiar to most 

 persons in the north, but the magnitude of its depredations is hardly 

 known outside of the narrow belt of rice fields along the coasts of a 

 few of the Southern States. Innumerable hosts of these birds visit 

 the fields at the time of planting in spring, devouring the seed-grain 

 before the fields are flooded, and again at harvest-time in the fall, 

 when if maturing grain is 'in the milk,' they feed upon it to a ruinous 

 extent. ''To prevent total destruction of the crop during the periods 

 of bird invasion, thousands of men and boys, called 'bird-minders,' 

 are employed, hundreds of thousands of pounds of gunpowder are 

 burned, and millions of birds are killed. Still the number of birds in- 

 vading the rice fields each year seems in no way diminished, and the 

 aggregate annual loss they occasion is about $2,000,000. 



