120 CANARIES AND CAGE-BIRDS. 



of music. Whole flocks strew the way with such a tangle of melody and jangle of 

 music, that your steps are checked, and you listen in admiration to the fullest out- 

 pourings of song. The revelry continues until Robert is sobered by the cares 

 of family matters. 



Whilst Master Robert, attired in his jaunty spring costume, bubbling over with 

 exhilaration, is attending to nothing but his own sweet appearance and noisy voice, 

 Mrs. Robert is engaged in a more substantial manner, and is thoughtfully tying 

 knots in the grass, to trip the unwary feet of her future lord and master. 



Bobolinks' nests are concealed in the luxuriant herbage of meadows with such 

 instinctive care for their safety as to be difficult to find, except by accident. In the 

 Western country the saying is, that an Indian can hide behind three blades of grass : 

 the hiding capabilities of a tuft of grass is best illustrated by the screening of a 

 Bobolink's nest, not only from observation, but from actual search. The female is 

 said to employ some artifice in arranging the spires of grass about the structure. 

 In New England she commences to lay about the first of June, and lays four or five 

 eggs, bluish white marked with irregular chocolate-brown spots. 



Before the summer season is over, the former jolly, handsome fellow assumes 

 the shabby dress of his mate ; and, as though ashamed of himself, he takes his 

 journey south with his numerous progeny, and travels mostly by night during the 

 migration, to elude observation ; and by the latter end of August, or the first of Sep- 

 tember, the final clink-link-a-link is heard, and he is seen no more until the return of 

 spring. On reaching the Southern States he assumes the names of Reed-bird and 

 Rice-bird, and there grows fat and lazy on the abundance of the autumn harvests of 

 rice and oats. It is there that the non-musical portion of Bob's friends, and his 

 injured enemies, join forces ; while shot-guns, cannon, and all sorts of weapons for 

 extermination, are brought into use. Then sad slaughter comes ; and the shot- 

 riddled innocents hang head downwards, voiceless, in the fowl market-places. 



It appears that the breeding-places of the Bobolinks are in the more northerly 

 latitudes, and that they merely migrate South for the purpose of finding more 

 abundant food and a more congenial climate. 



Robert o' Lincoln is one of the few birds which may be transferred from field to 

 cage, and, in the process, lose none of his sprightly ways and inspiring song. Put 

 him in some small, rusty old cage, so confining that he can only step from perch to 

 floor, and let him be thrust into some dark corner of a narrow, dingy room, it all 



matters not to him : his 



"Bob-o-link, Bob-o-link, 

 Spink, spank, spink," 



is sure to be heard, given with the same vim as though he entertained a king in a 

 palace, or were free to swing 



"On briar and weed, 

 Near to the nest of his little dame, 

 Over the mountain-side or mead." 



In his wild state, during the spring and summer seasons, the Bobolink subsists 

 almost wholly on insects ; later in the season the food is seeds and grain : he is, 

 however, not in the least a dainty fellow, but will thrive and grow stout on the 



