BOBOLINK 103 



more musical than those of the Grackles or other 

 Blackbirds. The ordinary call note sounds like 

 ' tchack, tchack,' several times repeated ; another 

 is like ' turulee, turulee, turulee,' uttered in a 

 clear tone, and varied occasionally to 4 trallahee, 

 trallahee.'" 



FIG. 44. 



Bobolink : Dolichonyx oryzivorus. 

 (Plate VII. p. 104.) 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. Breeds from southern New Jer- 

 sey and central Illinois northward to Nova Scotia, and west- 

 ward to Utah and Montana ; leaves the United States by way 

 of Florida, and winters in South America. 



The return of the birds is a record of daily 

 increasing pleasure, but it is only a quickening and 

 a promise until the glad day in May when we go 

 to the meadows and find that the Bobolinks have 

 come. Then the cup of summer gladness seems 

 full. The Bobolinks like a field adjoining an 

 orchard, so that they can fly up and make a sing- 

 ing gallery of the apple-tree tops, but the high 

 nodding weeds of a meadow also please them 

 very well. Just on the edge of the beautiful old 



