166 Sporting Sketches 



The truth is the male bobolink, like the mallard 

 drake and several other species, doffs his gay lover's 

 garb soon after the completion of the courtship. 

 A respectable head of a family has no business to be 

 knocking about in swell attire, and serenading and 

 chasing females, no matter how modestly dressed 

 they may be. So the bobolink bottles up his song, 

 puts on his working clothes, and hustles in the com- 

 missariat department to satisfy the half-dozen gap- 

 ing mouths in the grass-screened nest. When the 

 young have grown strong upon the wing, the birds 

 of several meadows assemble in flocks and attack 

 the ripening oats. Thence they betake themselves 

 to the marshes, to pose as reed birds after they 

 have fattened upon the nutritious seeds of the wild 

 rice. 



The sport of shooting reed birds, or " reedies," as 

 they frequently are termed, is too tame for the amuse- 

 ment of any one but a novice. As an adjunct to rail 

 shooting it may serve to fill up time, but as the 

 birds flock closely when moving and require no 

 particular craft on the part of the shooter, neither 

 skill nor excitement is ever prominent. Not sel- 

 dom the flocks, owing to the nature of the ground, 

 will follow one general line of flight ; then all the 

 shooter has to do is to place his boat, or take his 

 stand behind some convenient growth and blaze 

 away at the passing birds. A double shot may 

 score as many as twenty " reedies." When well 

 fattened upon rice the birds are delicious morsels, 

 but no better than sparrows and several other small 

 birds would be after a course of tHe same diet. 



So far as this shooting is concerned, I do not for 



