THE BOBOLINK. 17 
Captain Hazzard states that in cultivating from 1,200 to 1,400 acres 
of rice, he has paid as much as $1,000 for bird-minding in one spring. 
In addition to the use of firearms, various other methods of avoid- 
ing the ravages of the ricebirds have been tried, but with, at best, 
indifferent success. To prevent the birds from pulling up the sprouted 
seed in spring the device of coating it with coal tar has been used, 
as is effectively practiced in the case of corn. But the method of rice 
culture is very different from that of corn. As soon as the rice is 
sown it is covered with water, which remains on the field until the 
germination of the seed, a period of variable length. The soaking in 
water so affects the tar coating that it no longer protects the grain, 
and when the water is withdrawn the birds at once attack the seed. 
Moreover, it is stated by Captain Hazzard that some birds, including 
the ricebird, hull the grain before eating it, an assertion apparently 
corroborated by the absence of hulls in the bobolink stomachs exam- 
ined that contained rice. (When seeds are swallowed by birds, the 
hulls usually remain longer in the stomachs than the kernels.) Hence, 
on this account also, the tar coating would probably have no prevent- 
ive effect. Another method is to attach small flags to stakes or to fly 
kites over the fields. Looking-glasses have also been suspended in the 
same way, but all these devices soon cease to be effective. Placing 
pieces of refuse meat on poles about the fields to attract the buzzards 
has been tried; the ricebirds mistake the buzzards for hawks and 
avoid the fields over which they are flying. But the scheme is effective 
only for a short time, as the birds soon become accustomed to the 
presence of the buzzards and pay no further attention to them. 
These facts and figures are presented for the consideration of the 
people of the Northern States, to whom the name ‘bobolink’ suggests 
only poetry and sentiment, and by whom the birds themselves are 
looked upon as almost sacred, and are rigidly protected. It is not 
probable that any farmer in the North will for a moment contend that 
he receives from the bobolinks that nest upon his farm so much benefit 
that he would be willing in return to share the losses inflicted upon his 
Southern brothers by the birds. 
Insect pests ravage the crops of the whole country. No section is 
exempt from damage. Each crop has its destroyers, against which 
human energy and science must contend with whatever success they 
may, and in most cases some effectual remedy has been devised. But 
the case of the attacks of the bobolink upon the rice crop of the South 
is unique and is probably the result of a peculiar combination of 
causes, 
As before stated, these birds are inhabitants of open fields; mead- 
ows and prairies form their ideal breeding grounds. So much do they 
avoid woods and groves that they will seldom nest in a well-grown 
orchard, even if other accompaniments are agreeable. At the time 
3074—No. 18——2 
