NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 271 



Staffordshire, England, is in my cabinet, and exhibits the following 

 sizes: i.i^x.S/j., i.iox. 82, i.nx.83, i.i8x.79, i.2ox.79. Mr. Norris 

 has a large series, showing great variation in size and shape, and a 

 typical set of six, taken in Germany, April 18, 1885, measure : i.nx 

 .84, 1.09 x. 84, 1.09 x. 80, i.i5x.8i, i.iox. 79, 1.09 x. 83. 



494. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (LINN.) [257.] 



Bobolink. 



Hab. Eastern North America to the Plains, north to Southern Canada, south in winter to the West 

 Indies and South America. Breeds from the Middle States northward. 



A familiar bird in Eastern United States, breeding from the 38th 

 to the 54th parallel. In some parts of the country, in suitable places, 

 it is very abundant. Of all our natural songsters the Bobolink is the 

 most noted and popular. Descriptions of his song so frequently 

 appear in literature that even those who have not heard it must form a 

 good idea of its enchanting music : 



"That rollicking, jubilant whistle, 



That rolls like a brooklet along 

 That sweet flageolet of the meadows, 

 The bubbling, bobolink song." 



Often have I heard him sing when on the wing, or when at rest, 

 with the broad, green meadow and pasture lands spread before him, 

 perched on the top of a wind-beaten reed, with his wings sunward 

 spread, his head erect, his white and black back glistening in the sun- 

 light, pouring forth his " bubble-ing " bobolink notes to the azure win- 

 dows of heaven. In the South he is known as the Rice-bird, in the 

 Middle States as Reed-bird and Meadow-wink, and in the North as 

 Skunk Blackbird. The nesting time is in the latter part of May or 

 in June. 



The nest of the Bobolink is very hard to find ; it is built in a nat- 

 ural cavity of the ground, amongst the tall grass of meadows; 

 sometimes it is sunk in the depression made by a cow's or a horse's 

 hoof. Fields of clover, with here and there a tall weed-stalk or sap- 

 ling, on which the birds alight, are favorite nesting resorts. In leav- 

 ing the nest the female will run off through the grass quite a distance 

 before rising, and she will repeat the same performance upon her re- 

 turn, so that the nest can only be found by diligent and careful search 

 in the vicinity from which she arises. The eggs, too, resemble the 

 color of the ground so closely that they are easily overlooked. The nest 

 is a very slight affair, made of dry grasses and weed-stems, arranged 

 in a circular form. The eggs are usually five, sometimes six or seven 

 in number, and of a dull white or grayish-white, variously tinged with 

 light drab, olive, reddish and grayish-brown, intermingled with laven- 



