A A CHAPMAN on the Winter Distribution oj ''the Bobolink. (January 



Cassin's* mention of a specimen taken by Page on the La Plata, 

 marks the southern limit of our bird's distribution and concludes 

 the South American records with which I am acquainted. On 

 the return migration we have comparatively few data to assist us ; 

 those relating to South America, which I have already presented, 

 apparently indicate that the journey is commenced early in April, 

 but that some individuals linger until May, and on the 20th of 

 that month Salvin, as before mentioned, found a pair on the 

 coast of Honduras. Gossef says they return to Jamaica in 

 April, but stay only a short time, and this record renders it 

 probable that the line of flight chosen in the fall is simply retraced 

 in the spring. Gundlach \ reports their arrival in Cuba in May, 

 and says they remain only a few days, just how many is not 

 stated, but he elsewhere says§ they are present when the last of the 

 "Sylvicolidae" depart. 



We might now suppose that the southern coast of Florida 

 would prove the sole entering port to the eastern United States ; 

 probably the larger number of birds do choose this route, but 

 others pass northwards through the Bahamas, where they are true 

 transients, scarcely pausing to rest in their journey. In the Ameri- 

 can Museum there is a male, collected on Andros Island by C. J. 

 Maynard, April 25, and labelled by this collector as the "first of 

 the migration." At Nassau on New Providence, Bryant || first 

 notes their appearance May 6, when he saw a number of flocks 

 flying to the westward, and on May 7 the country was filled with 

 them, all being males. Numerous flocks continued to arrive 

 May 8 ; on the 9th many females were killed ; on the 10th only 

 a few were observed, and May 11, they had entirely disappeared. 



It now only remains to call attention to the bird's stay in localities 

 far south of their southern breeding limits where, tempted by an 

 abundance of food, they linger to an unusually late date. At 

 Gainesville, Florida,^ I found both sexes in great numbers, feed- 

 ing in the oat- fields as late as May 25, and we are familiar with 



* Proc. Phil. Acad. Sc, 1866, p. 16. 



t Birds Jamaica, 1847, p. 229. 



I journal fur Ornithologie, 1874, p. 129. 



$ Ibid., 1872, p. 419. 



|| Proc. Bost. Soc, VII, 1859, p. 119. 



If Auk, V, 1888, p. 272. 



