148 DAVET'S PRIMER 



THE BOBOLINK, OR RICEBIRD. 



The bobolink is a common summer resident of the 

 United States, north of about latitude 40, and from 

 New England westward to the Great Plains, winter- 

 ing beyond our southern border. In New England 

 there are few birds, if any, around which so much 

 romance clusters ; in the South none on whose head 

 so many maledictions are heaped. The bobolink, en- 

 tering the United States from the south at a time when 

 the rice fields are freshly sown, pulls up the young 

 plants and feeds upon the seed. Its stay, however, is 

 not long, and it soon hastens to the North, where it is 

 welcomed as a herald of summer. During its sojourn 

 in the Northern States it feeds mainly upon insects and 

 small seeds of useless plants ; but while rearing its 

 young, insects constitute its chief food, and almost the 

 exclusive diet of its brood. After the young are able to 

 fly, the whole family gathers into a small flock and 

 begins to live almost entirely upon vegetable food. 

 This consists for the most part of weed seeds, since 

 in the North these birds do not appear to attack 

 grain to any great extent. They eat a few oats, 

 but their stomachs do not reveal a great quantity of 

 this or any other grain. As the season advances they 

 gather into larger flocks, and move southward, until by 

 the end of August nearly all have left their breeding 

 grounds. On their way they frequent the reedy marshes 

 about the mouths of rivers and on the inland waters of 

 the coast region, and subsist largely upon wild rice. 



