138 Bird -Lore 



their range westward. Thus the Bobolink gives us an indication of how birds 

 learn to travel regularly, season after season, between their winter and summer 

 resorts. The route is learned little by little, as the birds gradually widen their 

 range, and the birds go back by the way they came. This habit appears to be 

 inherited, to be passed on from generation to generation, and when we remember 

 that birds have been migrating for thousands of years, it gives us some clue to 

 the manner in which such a great journey as the Bobolink's may have been 

 developed. 



After leaving Florida, the Bobolink Grand Trunk Line appears to have 

 three branches. One leads to Yucatan and thence southward along the eastern 

 coast of Central America; one crosses over Cuba to Jamaica, and one goes east- 

 ward to Porto Rico and thence southward through the Lesser Antilles. 



The Jamaica route is apparently the most popular. Gosse, in his 'Birds 

 of Jamaica,' tells us that vast numbers of Bobolinks arrive in that island in 

 October and remain until earl}- November. Fresh from the rice fields of our 

 southern states, they are extremely fat and are known as ' Butter-birds,' many 

 being killed for food. 



From Jamaica, Bobolink must cross 400 miles of open sea to reach northern 

 South America, — a journey which he doubtless makes in one night's flight; 

 and, having reached the mainland, he probably follows along the eastern slope 

 of the Andes to the treeless region toward which he has been traveling for at 

 least three months. 



Here Bobolink passes the next five months, with no family cares and nothing 

 to do but eat and be merry. He spends, therefore, almost twice as much time 

 in his winter home as in his summer one. 



Just when the northward journey is begun, no one seems to know. Probably 

 late in March, for Gosse WTites that Bobolinks reach Jamaica in April ; about 

 the 26th of that month they arrive in northern Florida, and, during the first week 

 in May, reach their particular meadow or pasture in the Middle and New Eng- 

 land states, with as much regularity as though they had traveled eight instead 

 of eight thousand miles since leaving it. 



Before we speak of the nest Bobolink has come so far to make, let us learn 

 something of his traveling suits. 



When Bobolink comes to us in May, he is wearing his wedding dress of black 

 and buff, and very attractive it is. His wife, however, is quite differently attired 

 in a streaked, sparrow-like costume, as our portrait in colors clearly shows. 



After family cares are over, in common with all birds, both Bobolink and 

 his wife shed their now worn plumage, and an entirely new one is grown. With 

 Mrs. Bobolink, this is not unlike the one she has just molted; but Bob himself, 

 in making his change of dress adopts the costume of his wife. Thereafter, 

 they both are known merely as Reedbirds or Ricebirds as they journey south- 

 ward, or Butterbirds, as we have seen, in Jamaica; and no one may say by dress 

 alone which is Mrs. or which is Mr. Bobolink. 



