ICTERID^E : AMERICAN STARLINGS. 



being usually skirted with yellowish ; and it is only for 

 a very brief period, at the very climax of the season in 

 June, that faultless featherings may be found, though 

 all the mature males are in more or less nearly complete 

 livery before reaching New England in the vernal mi- 

 gration. The late summer moult progresses with rapid- 

 ity in parts of July and August, and in most cases the 

 black has entirely disappeared by the time the birds 

 are making up in flocks, just prior to their departure. 

 Among several names by which the species is known 

 is that of "Skunk Blackbird," from their resemblance 

 in color to the notorious beast in mention. "Bobo- 

 link" is an onomatopoeia, formed to express the sound 

 of the voice, and "Meadowink" is of the same char- 

 acter, with additional reference to the places where 

 the birds are chiefly found during the season of song. 

 Bobolink nests are concealed in the luxuriant herb- 

 age of meadows with such instinctive care for their 

 safety as to be difficult to find except by accident, as 

 when disclosed by the scythe of the mower. In the 

 Western country the saying goes that an Indian can 

 hide behind three blades of grass ; and the hiding 

 capabilities of a tuft 'of herbage are never better dis- 

 played than in screening a Bobolink's nest, not only 

 from casual observation, but from patient search. The 

 female is said to employ some artifice in arranging the 

 spears of grass about the structure, as still further pro- 

 tection, and she is careful in going and coming, thread- 

 ing her way shyly through the herbage, into which 

 she flies at some distance usually from the cherished 

 spot. As the males at such times are singing any- 

 where about, apparently with little thought in the mat- 

 ter, there is little or nothing to focus attention in one 



