THE BOBOLINK 311 
another suit and another name in the South; and it has three 
reputations. 
When in springtime a certain jolly and vigorous little song- 
bird comes up from the South, he puts on a dress-suit of mar- 
vellous design, in black, white, brown and gray, as shown 
opposite the page following. He is then a regular swell, and 
his name is Bobolink. His mate, however, is a plain little 
bird, clad in yellowish brown, with slight trimmings of yellow 
and white. They frequent the marshes and low meadows, 
nest on the ground, and rear from five to seven young. 
That accomplished, the male bird doffs his pretty spring 
suit, acquires plumage like that of the female, and then they 
go South. There they become Rice Brrps, and years ago, 
when there were great rice-fields in the Carolinas, they raided 
those fields for rice, and grew fat. Then came the Man- 
With-a-Gun; and the birds fell easy victims. The birds 
were shot for two reasons: The rice-planters found them a 
nuisance in their fields, and many people think Rice Birds 
are good eating. 
Those conditions led straight to a very deplorable result. 
Although the rice-fields of the Carolinas are practically gone, 
the old status of the Bobolink as a game bird still persists, and 
wherever the shameless state laws permit it that beautiful 
song-bird is persistently shot by “‘sportsmen”’ as game. This 
is an outrage, and it must be terminated as quickly as pos- 
sible. 
Consider the ‘‘RreEp Brrp on toast,” or, worse still, “‘on 
a skewer.” It is a trifle too large for one mouthful, but by 
no means large enough for two. A healthy, able-bodied 
