BIRDS OF 



outer quills edged with yellowish ; bill blackish-horn ; feet brown. Male in 

 fall, female and young, entirely different in color; yellowish-brown above, 

 brownish-yellow below ; crown and bask conspicuously, nape, rump and sides 

 less broadly streaked with black ; crown with a median and lateral light 

 stripe ; wings and tail blackish, pale edged ; bill brown. The male changing 

 shows confused characters of both sexes. Length, 6^-7^ ; wing, 2^-4 ; tail, 

 2^-3 ; tarsus, about i ; middle toe and claw, about ij. 



HAB. Eastern North America to the Great Plains ; north to southern 

 Canada ; south in winter to the West Indies and South America. Breeds 

 from the Middle States northward, and winters south of the United States. 



Nest, a cup-shaped hollow in the ground in a hay field ; lined with 

 withered grass. 



Eggs, 4 to 5 ; brownish-white, heavily blotched and clouded with 

 chocolate-brown, making the general appearance very dark. 



In Southern Ontario the merry, rollicking Bobolink is well 

 known to all who have occasion to pass by the clover 

 fields or moist meadows in summer. He attracts 

 attention then by his fantastic dress of black and 

 white, as well as by his gay and festive manner, while he 

 seeks to cheer and charm his modest helpmate, who, in humble 

 garb of yellowish-brown, spends much of her time concealed 

 among the grass. Toward the close of the season, the holiday 

 dress and manners of the male are laid aside, and by the 

 time the birds are ready to depart, male and female, young and 

 old, are all clad alike in uniform brownish-yellow. The merry, 

 jingling notes are succeeded by a simple chink which serves to 

 keep the flocks together, and is often heard overhead at night 

 in the early part of September. In the south, where they get 

 very fat, they are killed in great numbers for the table. 



GENUS MOLOTHRUS SWAINSON. 



191. MOLOTHRUS ATER (BoDD.). 495. 

 Cowbird. 



Male, iridescent black ; head and neck purplish-brown. Female, 

 smaller, an obscure-looking bird, nearly uniform dusky grayish-brown, but 

 rather paler below, and appearing somewhat streaky, owing to darker shaft 

 lines on nearly all the feathers ; bill and feet black in both sexes. Length, 

 7^-8 ; wing, over 4 ; tail, over 3. 



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