18 
They begin to arrive on the rice fields in the latter part of August 
and during the next month make havoc in the ripening crop. It ii 
unfortunate that the rice districts lie exactly in the track of their fal 
migration, since the abundant supply of food thus offered has undoubt. 
edly served to attract them more and more, until most of the bobolinks 
bred in the North are concentrated with disastrous effect on the south 
east coast when the rice ripens in the fall. There was evidently a time 
when no such supply of food awaited the birds on their journey south. 
ward, and it seems probable that the introduction of rice culture in the 
South, combined with the clearing of the forests in the North, thus afford- 
ing a larger available breeding area, has favored an increase in the 
Fig. 9.—Bobolink. 
numbers of this species. The food habits of the bobolink are not nec: 
essarily inimical to the interests of agriculture. It simply happens that 
the rice affords a supply of food more easily obtainable than did the 
wild plants which formerly occupied the same region. Were the rice 
fields at a distance from the line of migration, or north of the boboliuks 
breeding ground, they would probably never be molested; but lying: 
as they do, directly in the path of migration, they form a recruiting 
ground, where the birds can rest and accumulate flesh and strength for 
the long sea flight which awaits them in their course to South America 
The annual loss to rice growers on account of bobolinks has beet 
estimated at $2,000,000. In the face of such losses it is evident that 
