The Bobolink 227 



ing from four to six, are of a grayish white with numer- 

 ous blotches of umber upon them. 



The nest is very dif&cult to locate — hours upon hours 

 have I spent in trying to find one. In approaching 

 the nest the male bobolink uses the same tactics as 

 does the wild turkey; proceeding leisurely, by a most 

 roundabout way and pretending great anxiety over 

 some different locality if you approach too near his 

 nest and mate. The female is the more wary of the 

 two, guarding the approach to the nest with the utmost 

 care ; she always runs through the grass a long distance 

 before taking to her wings, except when you stumble 

 upon her by chance as she is sitting upon the nest. 



While I was spending a summer in Princeton, New 

 Jersey, studying the birds of that section, a friend of 

 mine suggested a new method of finding the boboHnk's 

 nest, which was successful as compared with the old 

 haphazard way of searching about in the grass wherever 

 bobolinks were plentiful. The method was this : Hav- 

 ing located a good bobolink meadow, it is necessary 

 for two persons to operate together. They begin at 

 one side of the field and walk across it abreast about 

 seventy feet apart, holding between them a cord 

 upon which are fastened sticks two feet in length and 

 about eight feet apart. These sticks striking the grass 

 frighten the sitting bird from the nest, and she flies 



