68 BIRD-SONGS ABOUT WORCESTER. 



The bobolink (dolichonyx oryzivorus), 

 whose rare musical gifts entitle him to be 

 first mentioned in this letter, is one of the 

 most familiar and best loved of our birds. 

 This bird is peculiar to North America 

 and has no even remote kindred in the Old 

 World. He is unique even among our 

 own birds. In the first place he is the 

 only one that has clear white above with 

 black beneath. Then the bobolink's rol- 

 licking gush of melody is said to be the 

 only bird-song which the Southern mock- 

 ing-bird is unable to mimic. A caged 

 mocking-bird will at once become silent 

 when he hears the silvery medley of the 

 bobolink coming up from the meadow 

 before the farm-house. Of this bird's song 

 Samuels writes : " Almost everybody in 

 the North knows the song of the bobolink, 

 and has laughed in spite of himself at the 

 grotesque singer, as, perched on a twig 

 in the cherry-tree by the house, or in the 

 elm by the roadside, or in the alder by the 

 brook, he nodded his head, quivered his 

 wings, opened his mouth, and rattled 



