BOBOLINK 105 



exposed meadow. If he were black above, he 

 would be a target for all passing Hawks and other 

 gunners. At all events he is light above : his top 

 colors approximate to the meadow tints, but his 

 breast, invisible when he is on the ground by his 

 nest, is a glossy, handsome black which may well 

 please the eye of his lady. When he rises from 

 the friendly cover of the meadow to wing his way 

 to the south, he shows another wonderful example 

 of nature's work in eliminating dangerous charac- 

 ters and fostering the beneficial ones. He moults, 

 and the whole Lincoln family proceed on their 

 travels, like so many demurely dressed Sparrows. 

 When the Bobolinks go south they stop on the 

 way, first in the marshes, where they are known as 

 4 Reed-birds,' and then in the ricefields of South 

 Carolina and Georgia, where they are known as 

 ' Rice-birds/ Here they do great harm, and are 

 killed in such numbers that our northern mead- 

 ows are fast losing their choruses ; for it is a 

 lamentable fact that the intelligence which leads 

 a bird to adopt as food the crops which man has 

 planted must in many cases prove its own de- 

 struction. Most of the devices that have been 

 tried to protect the rice have failed, but in the 

 neighborhood of St. Louis a number of planters 

 have adopted a helpful measure. When feeding 

 on the rice in its milky state, the birds need to 

 wash their bills frequently to free them from the 

 gummy matter that comes from the rice, so the 



