572 



NA TURA L HIS TOR Y. 



Fig. 472. — Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). 



a new bottom, completely covering the cow-bird's egg, and thus preventing 

 its hatching. 



There is one bird which must not be forgotten. Each spring it leaves 

 the south, and with the successive steps of its migratory progress it leaves 

 a name behind. In Jamaica it bears the name of butter-bird ; when it 

 reaches Georgia and the Carolinas, it is the rice-bird. In Maryland and 



Pennsylvania it takes the name of 

 reed-bird, and then farther north 

 its pretty song gives it the cogno- 

 men of bobolink. Evervwhere it 

 is persecuted ; and its body, merely 

 a mouthful, is the delight of epi- 

 cures. Reed-birds are now not so 

 abundant as formerlv. while the 

 demand for them has increased. 

 This has resulted in one great good. 

 To supply the market, that unmiti- 

 gated nuisance the English sparrow 

 is killed, and after the beak is 

 injured and the bird is deprived of its feathers, it takes a refined taste to 

 tell the difference between the two. 



The last family of the birds is that which contains the finches. It is 

 very large, embracing as it does some five hundred species. Here come 

 the grosbeaks and the cross-bills. — the one with large and stout bills 

 suitable for cracking seeds and nuts ; the other with the bill adapted to 

 extracting the seeds from the cones of the various pines and firs. Once in 

 a while a cold winter will bring the pine-grosbeak down from the north 

 into New York and New England in large numbers. Living as they 

 ordinarily do in the far north, away from the haunts of man, they are 

 remarkably tame, or .rather unsophisticated, when they come among us. 

 No birds are easier to capture than they. A noose on the end of a walking- 

 stick is all that is necessary, and one can readily approach them, and put 

 the noose over the head of one without alarming the others of the flock. 

 More common are the rose-breasted grosbeak and the cardinal-bird repre- 

 sented in our cut, Here, too, must be mentioned the indigo-bird, the 

 song-sparrow, the chipping sparrow, the snow-bird, the canary, and a host 

 of others, one of which needs a paragraph by itself. 



Some years ago some persons not overblessed with brains introduced 

 into the parks of New York the English sparrow. It was confidently 

 expected that this bird on entering our country would change its habits 

 and here feed upon worms. In only one way did it fulfil the expectations 



