886 Report of State Geologist. 



a''. Outlines of liill distitKlly curved, the tip distinctly curved downward ; cuttin<< 

 edges turned inward. Subfamily Quiscalin.ic. 



//'. Tail much shorter than wing, nearly even; bill slender, shorter 



than head. Scolecophagus. 116 



</^. Tail longer than wing, middle feathers much the longer; bill as 



long as or longer than head. QtrisCAi.Tis. 117 



110. Genus DOLICHONYX Swainsos. 



187. (494). Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Lijsn.). 



Bobolink. 



Synonyms, White-winged IlLArKBiBD, Reedbird, Ricebird. 



Adult Male in Spring. — Mostly black; nape, deep buff; back, 

 streaked with buff; patch on side of breast, rump and scapulars, whit- 

 ish; upper tail-coverts, light ash; outer primaries and tertials, mar- 

 gined with yellowish-white; bill, blackish horn; feet, brown; tail feath- 

 ers pointed. Female and Male in Fall and Winter. — Above, yellowish, 

 or yellowish-olive; crown and back, conspicuously streaked with 

 black, nape and rump with smaller markings; crown, with a central 

 stripe, and stripe over each eye olive-buff, or olive-gray; wings and 

 tail, brownish, edged with lighter; tail feathers, sharp-pointed. Be- 

 low, yellowish or whitish, shaded with huffy or olive; sides and lower 

 tail-coverts, more or less distinctly streaked with black; bill, brown. 



Length, 6.30-7.60; wing, 3.70-4.00; tail, 3.60-2.90. 



Range. — America, from Paraguay north to Nova Scotia and Mani- 

 toba, west to Nevada, Utah and British Columbia. Breeds on coast 

 of Louisiana and from southern New Jersey, southern Indiana and 

 Kansas northward. Winters from West Indies southward. 



Nest, on ground, frequently in natural depression, in bunch of grass 

 in meadow, prairie, or dry marsh; of fine, dry grass, straw or weeds. 

 Eggs, 4-5, and occasionally 6-7; gray, bluish-gray, bluish- white, 

 spotted and veined with various shades of brown and gray, heaviest at 

 large end; .81 by .61. 



The Bobolink is a regular migrant in southern Indiana, but is rare. 

 It is a common summer resident in the northern part of the State, 

 and in some localities breeds abundantly. At the time of the settle- 

 ment of the country by white men it was probably found in summer 

 about the lower end of Lake Michigan, extending westward some dis- 

 tance into Illinois and south into the prairies of the Kankakee basin 

 and as far east as Rochester in Indiana, thence northward to, and, 

 possibly, into southwestern Michigan. It is probable some were to be 



