216 BOARD OF AGRICLTLTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



haps, until the 29th of May. During this incursion it is known as 

 the " May-biid." It appears again about the 15th of August, when 

 the early grain is hardened and is not so inviting to his appetite 

 as when unrijie and in the milk. The planter, observing these dates, 

 seeks therefrom to seed the land and to have the young rice under 

 what is known as the " stretch flow " before the spring flocks arrive, 

 and to have the grain ripened before the autumn flocks return. If 

 his i:)lanting is not finished before the spring flocks come, it will be 

 delayed xuitil late in Maj^ or early in June, when the birds have de- 

 parted for the season. He looks to the ripening and harvesting 

 of such late crops when the fall ravages of the rieebird have either 

 ceased or are much diminished. . . . 



Despite the precautions so taken, its invasions are ruinous to 

 fields on which its flocks may settle, especially if the grain is in 

 i:)alatable condition and is on fields adjacent to marshes convenient 

 for ambush or retreat. Bird-minders, armed with muskets and shot- 

 guns, endeavor by discharges of blank cartridges to keep the birds 

 alarmed and to drive them from the field. Small shot are also fired 

 among them, and incredible numbers are killed; but all such efforts 

 will not prevent great waste of grain, amounting to a loss of large 

 portions of a field, — sometimes, indeed, to its entire loss. The 

 voracity of the bird seems so intense that fear is secondary to it, 

 and they fly, when alarmed, from one portion of the field to another, 

 very little out of gunshot, and immediately settle down again to 

 their banquet. 



As evidence of the numbers present of this bird and of the num- 

 bers killed in the rice fields, a neighboring planter informs me that 

 in 1884 he permitted four pot-hunters (contrary to the ordinary 

 regime) to shoot in his fields, and in the course of the fall season 

 they slaughtered and accounted for 8,000 ricebirds. 



A part of the above statement seems to show how the rice 

 planters might avoid injury by the ricebirds throngh early 

 planting. But it is clear that for some reason early planting 

 is not always done. 



In the same report appears a copy of a letter from Capt. 

 Wm. Miles ITazzard, Annandale, S. C, from which the fol- 

 lowing is an extract: — 



The bobolinks make their appearance here during the latter part 

 of April. At that season their plumage is white and black, and 

 they sing men-ily when at rest. Their flight is always at night. In 

 the evening thei^e are none. In the morning their appearance is 

 heralded by the popping of whips and firing of musketry by the 



