THE RICE TROOPIAL, OR BOBOLINK. 



331 





The Red and White-shouldered Blackbird {Agelaius tricolor) is also found exclusively 

 ou the western portion of the continent. 



The Yellow-headed Blackbird {Xanthocephalus icterocepJmliis) is a large species, 

 inliabitiug the region from Illinois to Texas, and thence to the Pacific, preferring the prairies. 

 Dr. Cooper states that the only song this bird has consists of a few hoarse chuckling notes 

 and comical squeakings, uttered as if it were a great effort to make any noise at all. Its voice 

 is regarded as the harshest of any known bird. It is \evx abundant in California. It walks on 

 the ground much in the same steady manner of the Cow Bird. 



Few of the American birds are better Iuiowti than the Eice Troopial, which is familiar 

 over the gi'eater part of that continent. 



No American zoologist omits a notice of the Rice Troopial, and there are few writers 

 on country life who do not mention this little 

 bird under one of the many names by which it 

 is known. In some parts of the States it is called 

 the Rice Bird, in another the Reed Bird, in 

 another the Rice or Reed Buxtixg, while its 

 more familiar title, by which it is called through- 

 out the greater part of America, is Bobolink, or 

 BoB-Li]S^KUJi. It also occasionally visits Jamaica, 

 where it gets very fat, and is in consequence called 

 the Butler Bird. Its title of Rice Troopial is 

 earned by the depredations which it annually 

 makes upon the rice crojis, tliough its food is by 

 no means restricted to that seed, but consists in a 

 very large degree of insects, grubs, and various 

 wild gi-asses. 



Like the preceding species, it is a migratory 

 bird, residing during the winter months in the 

 southern parts of America and the AVest Indian 

 Islands, and j^assing in vast flocks northwards at 

 the commencement of the spring. Few birds liave 

 so extensive a range as the Rice Ti'oopial, for it 

 is equally able to exist in the warm climates of 

 tropical America and the adjacent islands, and 

 in the northerly regions of the shores of the St. 

 Lawrence. 



According to Wilson, their course of migra- 

 tion is as follows : "In the month of April, or 

 very early in IMay, the Rice Buntings, male and 

 female, arrive Avithin the southern boundaries 

 of the United States, and are seen around the 

 town of Savannah, in Georgia, about the fourth 



of May, sometimes in separate parties of males and females, but more generally promiscuously. 

 They remain there but a short time, and about the twelfth of May make their appearance 

 in the lower pai't of Pennsylvania as they did in Savannah. While liere, tlie males are 

 extremely gay and full of song, frequenting meadows, newlj'-plouglied fields, sides of creeks, 

 rivers, and watery places, feeding on mayflies and caterpillars, of which tliey destroy great 

 quantities. In their passage, however, through Yii-ginia at this season, they do great damage 

 to the early wheat and barley while in its milky state. About the 20th of May, they dis- 

 appear on their way to the north. Nearly at the same time they arrive in the State of 

 New York, spread over the whole New England States, as far as the river St. Lawrence, from 

 Lake Ontario to the sea, in aU of which places, north of Pennsylvania, they remain during the 

 summer, building and rearing their young." 



EICE troopial, or BOBOLINK.— DoJicftony;- oryzlvorm. 



