THE BOBOLINK. 411 



incursions in the grain fields are tahooed wliile the j-oung are in tlie nest. Is 

 there not a little of judicious reasoning in tliis ? Loolc at it : if the bird cul- 

 tivates the good will, of the farmer, by destroying his insect enemies, and 

 letting his crops grow in jieace, he is iiermitted to rear his family in security, 

 and is even ratiier liked, his song being a most pleasant companionship to 

 tiic farmer who delves and plods in the fields around him. What would be 

 the fate of Bob if he were notoriously a plague in the Xorth ? Glance at tiie 

 position of the crow and you are answered. See the black outlaw ! how 

 careful he is not to poke his nose within gunshot of a man, or a semblance 

 of one in the fields, but keeps carefully in the woods and meadows ! lint if 

 the Bobolink were driven from man's society to this extent, he would sufier 

 sadly ; for, setting aside the abundance of his favorite food where settlements 

 arc thickest, he would fdl a victim, and his family, too, to any prowlin"- 

 skunk, or mink, or fox that might be passing by his home, which is always 

 on the ground. 



So the Bobolink spares the crops until his fiimily is able to care for them- 

 selves, and then, ah ! then is another story. 



When the young birds leave the nest, the parents provide for them for a 

 few days, and then turn them away to shift for themselves : this is in about 

 the middle of July. The old birds then pass a com})aratively idle season — 

 roaming through the country, recuperating from the cares of parenta"-e, and 

 exchanging their nuptial dress for one more in accordance with their matured, 

 respectable, old folks' condition ; the lyale assumes the sober, and lately more 

 sober, attire of his mate, and dropping his song, contents himself with re- 

 peating her simple " chink." 



So much do the old and young birds resemble each other that, in the flocks 

 of from fifty to one hundred individuals, in which they gather in early fall, 

 it is impossible by tiie plumage to distinguish either. 



ilany writers and others have wondered at this change, and bv the mul- 

 titude it is considered remarkable ; but it is not peculiar to this bird alone, 

 for there arc many s[)ecies whose dresses are entirely different in the winter 

 and summer season ; witness the Ptarmigans, which change from brown to 

 pure white in winter; the Snow Buntings, which change from mottled brown- 

 ish and white in winter to pure black and white in summer ; some of the 

 Warblers, Ducks, &c. Early in September the Bobolinks begin to move 

 southward, and although they obtain a great portion of their sustenance 

 ii'om fields and meadows, gleaning seeds of grasses and weeds, and capturing 

 orthoptcrous and other insects, they make sad havoc in the fields of late 

 grain and rice ; and the firing of guns during their passage through the ]\Iid- 

 dle and Southern States, not only by farmers' and planters' boj's, but by 

 sportsmen and pot hunters, who shoot them for the table and market, is often 

 almost incessant. 



