120 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



lessons on stuffed bobolinks and the poem, I should 

 take the poem : there is more bobolink in it. 



I like Bryant's lyric because it catches so much 

 of the life of a bobolink. A scientific description 

 could tell the story better, but only ornithologists 

 read scientific descriptions. Yet I have always 

 wished that the poet had told the whole story. 

 The poem tells us of the life of the bobolink ; but 

 after the breeding season is past, the birds gather 

 in flocks in the rice-fields and reeds of the South 

 and are then known as rice-birds and reed-birds. 

 In great numbers they are slaughtered for the 

 market, and thereby the bobolink does not become 

 an abundant species in the North. May we not add : 



Far in the South he gathers his clans, 



Nor thinks of the regions of ice ; 

 Too early yet for housekeeping plans, 

 He rev'ls and gluttons in fields of rice. 

 Rice-bird, bob-o'-link, 

 Spink, spank, spink; 

 Hunter is waiting under the bloom, 

 Robert of Lincoln falls to his doom. 

 Chee, chee, chee. 



Spring comes : swinging on brier and weed, 



Near to the nest of his little dame, 

 Over the mountain-side and mead, 



Another proud groom is telling his name : 

 Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 

 Spink, spank, spink; 

 The meadow belongs to wife and me 

 Life is as happy as life can be. 



Chee, chee, chee. 



