80 SOME CANADIAN BIBDS. 



him — he dodges the blow with a fantastic gesture ; she continues on 

 her way without noticing his effort to interest her — he at once 

 hovers above her head and sings his merriest song. Sometimes 

 another wooer seeks to attract her, but woe unto such intruder if 

 he lacks valor or strength, for Bob can fight upon occasion as well 

 as sing. The victim of this persistent wooing tries in vain to get 

 rid of the fellow, but he will be neither snubbed ofi" nor driven off, 

 and declines obstinately to accept a refusal. Just how he manages 

 to win her consent at last none but the bobolinks know — but win 

 her he surely does. 



These preliminaries arranged, the pair go off together in search 

 of a nesting site, and they seem very happy as they fly about amid 

 the buttercups and daisies. The place they usually select for their 

 nest is in the midst of a moist meadow, sometimes on a marsh, and 

 often near a running stream. A tuft of long grass hides the cosy 

 home from prying eyes. The nest itself is a simple affair, made 

 (^ntirely of dried grass and rather loosely built. In this the hen 

 lays four or five eggs — sometimes six are found — of very irregular 

 color, marking and form. The ground color is white, with green 

 or buff tint, and the markings are lilac and brown. Some eggs are 

 so profusely covered with surface spots that the ground color is 

 quite hidden. 



Housekeeping started, the female takes the burden of sitting 

 upon the eggs — that protracted confinement which must be an 

 excessively trying ordeal for such a restless creature as a bird, 

 and especially for one with the nervous organization of the sing- 

 ing bird. But her hilarious lord proves himself the best of help- 

 mates. He is very attentive to the plain, brown belle he wooed 

 and won, whose maternal instinct leads her to cover her precious 

 beauties with such rare devotion. He never neglects her. He 

 ^ keeps watchful guard upon the home, and no enemy approaches it 

 unchallenged ; he brings her food ; all day long he sings to cheer 

 her, and when she goes for an airing takes her place on the nest. 



I once saw a male bobolink protecting his sitting mate from the 

 rain. The grass around the nest had been beaten down, exposing 

 the hen to a fierce storm, and on the side of the nest, placid and 

 unperturbed, taking the stress of the storm in chivalrous fashion, 

 stood rollicking Robert of Lincoln, his wing tencorly spread over the 



