322 USEFUL BIRDS. 
of ragweed, barn grass, and panic grass form probably the 
greatest portion ; but the Cowbird eats-more grain than the 
Red-winged Blackbird. Undoubtedly its food habits are on 
the whole beneficial; but, as every Cowbird is reared at the 
expense of the lives of at least two other birds, the reputa- 
tion of the species suffers accordingly, and its social habits 
are certainly not exemplary, if judged by human standards. 
Bobolink. Skunk Blackbird. Reed Bird. Rice Bird. 
Dolichonyx -oryzivorus. 
Length. — About seven and one-fourth inches. 
Adult Male.—In spring and early summer, mainly black; nape creamy buff; 
streaks on upper back grayish-white ; shoulders and lower back ashy-white ; 
in August and September the plumage resembles that of the female. 
Adult Female and Young.— Upper parts brown, dark-streaked; lower parts 
yellowish-brown, unstreaked. 
Nest.— On ground, in grass. 
Eygs.— Gray, spotted with brown and overlaid with dusky streaks, blotches, 
and scrawls. 
Season. — May to September. 
The Bobolink is the harlequin of the spring meadows. He 
is a happy-go-lucky fellow, with his suit on wrong side up, 
the black below and the white above ; a reckless, rollicking 
sort of a fowl, throwing care 
to the winds, and always 
bent on a lark. His spirits 
are of the effervescent kind, 
and his music bubbles irre- 
pressibly forth at such a rate 
that half a dozen notes seem 
to be crowding upon the 
Fig. 144.— Bobolink, male, and army heels of every one uttered. 
WEARS -DALE NAMUESE BieGs Indeed, this is about the only 
bird that completely baffles the latter-day “interpreters” of 
bird music. His notes tumble out with such headlong rapid- 
ity, in an apparent effort to jump over each other, that it is 
next to impossible for the scribe to set them down in the 
proper sequence of musical notation. Nevertheless, this 
harum-scarum expression of irrepressible joy is of the most 
pleasing character, and ranks among the finest music of the 
fields. 
