THE BOBOLINK 223 



time reveals his presence to the hunter. Robert sits be- 

 wildered by the brilliant light, until the hunter gets close 

 enough to strike him with his paddle and knock him off 

 into the sack. Scores are often collected in this way in a 

 single evening. 



Undoubtedly bobolinks become numerous enough in the 

 rice fields to be actually injurious, and doubtless the man 

 who feeds these birds has some claim on them; but never- 

 theless it seems too bad that so brilliant and jolly a song 

 bird should be sacrificed by tens of thousands every year 

 for no higher purpose than to be eaten. Surely if God 

 ever made anything to cheer us and make us happy it was 

 the bobolink, and it always seems to show a lack of ap- 

 preciation of the really worth-while things in nature when 

 people deliberately kill song birds for food. It must be 

 admitted, however, that Eobert never sings in the land 

 where he feeds on rice and is slaughtered. This makes the 

 case of his enemies appear more plausible, for many of 

 them do not even know his virtues in the parts where he 

 raises his young. It seems remarkable that a bird should 

 be largely an insect eater in his northern home and a grain 

 eater on his migrations. Perhaps he himself is ashamed 

 of it, for he changes his coat so effectively that even his 

 best friends in the North might not recognize him in the 

 rice fields of the South. 



In the Northeastern part of the United States, where 

 the bobolink is most common, he sometimes forgets his 

 good manners and becomes a nuisance as soon as the corn 

 is in roasting ear. He occasionally gathers in the fields 

 by hundreds, and creates great havoc by tearing open the 

 ends of the ears and eating the sweet young corn. 



