Plate LXVIIL 



Fig. 12. DOUCHONYX ORYZIVORUS-Bobolink. 



The Bobolink, or Reed-bird of the South, is a common summer-resident in suitable localities through- 

 out Ohio. About Circleville, there are a number of fields in different directions, where they can be found 

 every year, yet there are few citizens who know the bird, or knowing it, have ever seen it here. They 

 arrive about the first of May and remain until September, during which time but one brood is usually reared 



LOCALITY : 



The Bobolink builds its nest in damp meadow-lands, and also in clover- and timothy-fields in dry 

 uplands. It prefers for its nest a field containing a mixture of blue-grass and red-clover, with here and 

 there small trees and bushes, and especially is such a locality desirable, if it contains a little ditch, or 

 several low spots of ground which are continually damp. 



POSITION : 



The nest rests on the ground in a little natural depression, and is well concealed by the luxuriant 

 clover or grass surrounding it. 



MATERIALS : 



The chief materials of construction are grass and clover stalks arranged circularly and crosswise, 

 the finest material being used for a lining. Externally, it measures from four to four and a half inches; 

 internally, its diameter is about three inches, and its depth about two inches. There is not much of 

 interest about this nest. It is well built for its position, and is composed of the materials which answer 

 best for its concealment. 



EGGS : 



The complement of eggs is four or five. They measure in long-diameter from .70 to .90, and in 

 short-diameter from .55 to .65. A common size is about .60 x .81. The ground-color is gray; the marks 

 consist of large blotches, spots, and speckles, and occasionally scrawls of warm, ric.h brown, or a darker 

 and heavier brown, which, when laid on thickly, appears nearly black. The deep shell-marks are 

 frequently numerous, and vary in tint according to depth, from a darker shade of the ground-color to 

 purplish-gray. One egg before me is thickly marked with large, irregular, and sometimes confluent 

 blotches of Vandyke brown from point to base, and the parts of the shell which have escaped the blotches 

 are thickly speckled with the same brown. Deep shell-marks are inconspicuous. Another egg is spotted 

 and speckled with sepia about the base, the pointed half of the shell being only speckled slightly with 

 the same color ; no deep shell-marks. Another specimen is blotched and spotted moderately from point 

 to base with rich brown, and also speckled and marked with a scrawl or two. There are a number of 

 deep shell-marks, and these give a purplish cast to the egg. Other eggs differ in pattern through numerous 

 combinations, as varied in extent as the markings on the eggs of the Song Sparrow. 



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