48 



THE OOLOGIST 



proacii, she leaves a dark trial of brush- 

 ed-away-drops in the white dew and 

 you may find her basket of eggs snugly 

 concealed at the foot of that "white- 

 top" or "black-eyed Susan," simply by 

 following back her trial. 



I have found the Bobolink's nest June 

 5th with young just beginning to show 

 the tips of their cunning feathers, and 

 have found them flying eleven days 

 later. This was a little earlier for this 

 locality. But as they raise but one 

 brood it is evidently necessary, that 

 this one be safely and quickly— that is 

 early in the season— raised, so that 

 they may escape the earliest hay mak- 

 ing. And though the hay maker may 

 find the empty nest, he will but very 

 seldom happen upon one containing 

 eggs or young This will only occur 

 when some mishap has retarded a pair. 

 As the Bobolink is characteristic of the 

 fairest and sweetest season, coming to 

 us in time to sing from the top sprays 

 of our bloom-laden orchards, voicing 

 the bucolics of stiawberry-time, and 

 sheep washing and shearing, it is tit 

 that we lose him when Ihe first fresh- 

 ness and flowers of spring are gone.and 

 hotter summer comes like a nut brown 

 gipsy. By the fourth of July the Bobo- 

 link's wild' bubbling song shows signs 

 of waning. It is only a song of broken 

 bars now. He starts his jingle as 

 bravely as erewhile he did, but be- 

 fore he has gone far he appears to grow 

 absent minded, for his song snaps and 

 he relapses into silence. Again he tries 

 it with no better result. Tomorrow he 

 will not gtt so far as he ^an today. 

 His power of song is sH^'ping froni him. 

 He feels the coming change, he is de- 

 generating into a grating, metallic 

 voiced seed eating, russet-yellow "reed 

 bird." He who was a sweet singing 

 insect-feeder. By the twentieth of the 

 mouth I hear his tipsy roundelay no 

 more. He has ceased to revel in the 

 taverns of clover and "flea-bane;" his 

 music box is closed, his harp unstrung. 



The rare intoxicating wine uf May and 

 the mtad of June are gone now, and 

 the little debaucher will quaff nothing- 

 less sweet or pure, and henceforth i& 

 sober and silent. And whether he 

 moults as some think or whether the- 

 black fades out of his plumage as others- 

 hold, he soon loses his suit of black al- 

 ready worn, and becomes the plain 

 brown "Reed- bird" even in this coun- 

 try. And when he leaves us in early 

 September or latter August, we say 

 with Bryant: 



"When you can pipe that merry old strain 

 Robert of Lincoln come hack again." 



After the "Reed bird" he becomes, 

 the "Rice-bird" of the south, then the 

 "Butter-bird" of the West Indies, as. 

 Washington Irving says, "He has be- 

 come a bon vivant a gourmand; with, 

 him now there is nothing like the "joys'" 

 of the table.'' In a little while he 

 grows tired of plain homely fare, and is. 

 off on a gastronomic tour in quest of 

 foreign luxuries. Such is the story of 

 the Bobolink; nice spiritual, musical^ 

 admired, the joy of the meadows, and 

 the favorite bird of spring; Anally a, 

 gross little .sensualist, who expiates his 

 sensuality in the larder " 



We are happy in this latitude in en- 

 tertaining "the vivaceous, voluble and 

 eccentric Boboliak" as Dr. Elliott Coues 

 calls him, in the happiest and most 

 beautiful and useful s-tage of his motley 

 career, for with us he is the insectiver- 

 ous songster through the breeding seas- 

 on. We scarcely understand the mean- 

 ing of his specific scientific name ory- 

 zivorus — I devour rice. 



EjKNEST WaTKKS ViCKtRS, 



Mahoning Co., Ohio. 



One OF HuNDKKUS: — Thank you for 

 the start yf)U gave niM in the scientifle 

 study of birds and their fggs. I owe it 

 all to ad. ,\ou had in the )outh's Com- 

 panion about eight vears ago. Have 

 taken the Oologist since Aug., 1890. I 

 have them bound together and was. 

 reading in them just the other day. — 

 Wm. C. Thko. 



