y BOBOLINK, 135 
4 thousand miles to his winter quarters south of the Ama- 
j zon. 
The start is made in July, when he joins flocks of 
his kind in the northern wild-rice (Zizania aquatica) 
marshes. Late in August he visits the cultivated rice 
fields of South Carolina and Georgia, and it is at this sea- 
son we so often hear the metallic tink of passing migranta, 
The rice is now in the milk, and the Ricebirda, or Orto- 
lans, as they are called in the South, are so destructive to 
the crop that it is estimated they directly or indirectly 
cause an annual loss of $3,000,000. Some birds linger 
as far north as New York until October 1, but by this 
time the leaders of the south-bound host have reached 
Cuba, where they are callel1 Chambergo. .From Cuba 
they pass to the coast of Yucatan, and thence southward 
through Central America or to the island of Jamaica, 
where, because of their extreme fatness, they are known 
as Butterbirds. From Jamaica they go to the mainland, 
either of Central America, or by one continuous flight of 
four hundred miles to northern South America, thence 
traveling southward to their winter home. 
The northward journey is begun in March or April, 
and about the 25th of the latter month the vanguard 
reaches Florida. It is composed only of males, now 
called Maybirds, all in full song. Let any one who 
knows the Bobolink’s song imagine, if he can, the effect 
produced by three hundred birds singing together! 
About May 1 Bobolinks reach the vicinity of New 
York city. The females soon follow the males, and 
early in June the birds are nesting. This is the glad 
season of the Bobolink’s year. For ten months he has 
been an exile, but at last he is at home again, and he 
gives voice to his joy in the jolliest tinkling, rippling, 
rollicking song that ever issued from bird’s throat. 
In the fields made merry by the music of Bobolinks one 
LE 
