157 



between them in a popular description. Most of them have rather long, 

 pointed, tapering bills (Figures 46, 47, 48, 49, p. 26) and some have 

 the middle of the culmen running up in a short keel on the forehead. The 

 Bobolink and the Cowbird have quite sparrow-like bills, but they are 

 shortened Icterine rather than Passerine bills. These species can also 

 be easily separated by their marked colour patterns. 



494. Bobolink, sktink blackbihd. ricebihd. fb. — le GOGLtJ. Dolicfumyx 

 oryzivorus. L. 7-25. Plate XXV B. 



Distinctums. The spring male in its striking piebald plumage is unmistakable. The 

 female and the autumn birds of either sex show no colour relation to the spring male and 

 are easily confused with some of the sparrows (bill, Figure 46, p. 26). The newly 

 plmnaged autumn birds are yellowish-buff in colour, unstriped below and heavily striped 

 above. The spring female, more worn and faded and slightly olivaceous, looks much 

 like a female House or English Sparrow, but the decidedly streaked back and crown 

 and the buffy line over the eye are distinctive. 



Field Marks. The male in spring needs no special mention of field marks for recog- 

 nition; the streaks and yellowness of other plumages and the buffy eye and crown stripes 

 are good recognition marks. These with habitat and general actions should prevent 

 confusion. 



Nesting. On ground; nest built of grasses. 



DistrilnUion. North America, wintering in South America; in eastern Canada, along 

 the southern border breeding wherever found. 



The Bobolink in spring and summer is a bird frequenting the hay and 

 clover fields. It can be seen any summer's day perched on the surrounding 

 fences or launching into the air on quivering wings, pouring forth its song 

 of ecstasy. Later in the season the rollicking male doffs his parti-coloured 

 gayness for the duller ochre and brown stripes of the female. His song is 

 replaced by metallic clinks, and with hundreds of others of this species 

 joined together in flocks he seeks the marshes until autumn. On leaving 

 Canada for his winter home in South America he stops for a time in the rice 

 fields of the Carolinas and here he is hailed not as Bobolink, the merry 

 songster, beloved for both practical and sentimental reasons, but as the 

 plaguy "Rice Bird" that settles upon the crops in thousands and causes 

 decided damage. In the south he is shot and sold for food in great numbers . 



Economic Status. The Bobolink in Canada is an irreproachable bird who 

 charms us with his song and whose bad habits have yet to be discovered. 

 In May and June, 90 per cent of its food consists of injurious insects, and 

 10 per cent of weed seeds with a few useful insects. In July and August 

 a very little grain is added. rYet this bird is regarded as a pest in the 

 southern States. 



495. Cowbird. cow blackbird, fb. — L'iTotrBNEATj ohdinairb. Mohthrus ater. 

 L, 7-92. Plate XXVI A. 



Distinctions. A small Blackbird with a seal black head and neck. The female is 

 ashy-brown, hghter on throat, and can be distinguished from any of the sparrows, which 

 she resembles in having a conical biU, by the even, unmarked coloration. 



Field Marks. Small Blackbird with short conical bill, a harsh rattling note, and 

 grating squeak. 



Nesting. Eggs laid in the nest of other, usually smaller species, on the ground or in 

 low situations. 



Distribution. Over most of North America. In Canada north to the limits of culti- 

 vation. Common except in the extreme coastal provinces of the east. 



The Cowbird is our only habitually parasitic bird. It never builds a 

 nest or incubates or cares for its young. In the absence of nesting birds it 

 takes the opportunity of depositing one of its own eggs in the unguarded 

 57172— lU 



