THE BOBOLINK 



THE bobolink has a secure place in literature, 

 having been laureated by no less a poet than 

 Bryant, and invested with a lasting human charm 

 in the sunny page of Irving, and is the only one 

 of our songsters, I believe, that the mockingbird 

 cannot parody or imitate. He affords the most 

 marked example of exuberant pride, and a glad, 

 rollicking, holiday spirit, that can be seen among 

 our birds. Every note expresses complacency and 

 glee. He is a beau of the first pattern, and, un- 

 like any other bird of my acquaintance, pushes 

 his gallantry to the point of wheeling gayly into 

 the train of every female that comes along, even 

 after the season of courtship is over and the 

 matches are all settled; and when she leads him 

 on too wild a chase, he turns lightly about and 

 breaks out with a song that is precisely analogous 

 to a burst of gay and self-satisfied laughter, as 

 much as to say, "Ha ! ha ! ha ! I must have my 

 fun, Miss Silverthimble, thimble, thimble, if I 

 break every heart in the meadow, see, see, see! " 



At the approach of the breeding-season the 

 bobolink undergoes a complete change ; his form 

 changes, his color changes, his flight changes. 



