74 



TWENTIETPI CENTURY CLASSICS 



Iris brown ; bill, upper blackish, under bluish, with 

 the end dusky ; legs and feet brown ; claws dark brown. 



The following description of this familiar species is 

 from ''North American Land Birds/' Vol. II, p. 150: 



" Of all our unimitative and natural songsters, the 

 Bobolink is by far the most popular and attractive. Al- 

 ways original, and peculiarly natural, its song is exquis- 

 itely musical. In the variety of its notes, in the rapidity 

 with which they are uttered, and in the touching pathos, 

 beauty and melody of their tone and exiDression, its notes 

 are not equaled by those of any other I^orth American 

 bird. We know of none among our native feathered 

 songsters whose song resembles or can be campared with 

 it. 



'" In the earliest approaches of spring, in Louisiana, 

 when small flocks of male Bobolinks make their first ap- 

 pearance, they are said by Mr. Audubon to sing in con- 

 cert; and their song, thus given, is at once exceedingly 

 novel, interesting, and striking. Uttered with a volubil- 

 ity that even borders upon the burlesque and the ludi- 

 crous, the whole efl^ect is greatly heightened by the singu- 

 lar and striking manner in which first one singer, and 

 then another, one follow^ing the other, until all have 

 joined their voices, take up the note and strike in, after 

 the leader has set the example and given the signal. In 

 this manner, sometimes a party of thirty or forty Bobo- 

 links will begin, one after the other, imtil the whole unite 

 in producing an extraordinary medley, to which no pen 

 can do justice, but which is described as very pleasant to 

 listen to. All at once the music ceases, with a suddenness 

 not less striking than extraordinary. These concerts are 



