430 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
II. Not streaked below. L, LL. 
L. Mainly black or slate color all over, and without any white 
in wings. M, MM, MMM. 
M. Large, length 11 to 14 inches, tail much graduated. 
Bronzed Grackle. No. 205. 
MM. Medium, length 8 to 10 inches, tail nearly square, bill 
slender. Rusty Blackbird. No. 204. 
MMM. Small, length 6 to 8 inches, tail square, bill short and 
thick. Cowbird, male and female. No. 196. 
LL. Not all black or slate color, some white on wings. N, NN, 
NNN. 
N. Under parts clear black, upper parts largely white. Bob- 
olink, adult male. No. 195. 
NN. Under parts mainly rich chestnut, only throat and chest 
clear black. Orchard Oriole, adult male. No. 202. 
NNN. Under parts plain greenish yellow, upper parts plain 
olive, two whitish wing-bars. Orchard Oriole, 
female. No. 202. 
195. Bobolink. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linn.). (494) 
Synonyms: Skunk-head Blackbird, White-winged Blackbird, Meadowwink, Towhee 
(mistake), and, at the south, Rice-bird and May-bird.—Tringilla oryzivora, Linnzus, 
1758.—Dolichonyx oryzivorus, Swains., 1827.—Emberiza oryzivora, Wilson. 
Plate X LITI. 
Male in spring entirely black below, mixed black, white and cream above; 
female everywhere pale buff, the upper parts and the sides streaked with 
black. In both sexes and at all ages and seasons the tail-feathers are very 
sharp pointed. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America, west to Montana, ete.; north to 
Ontario and the southern parts of Manitoba, Assiniboia, and Alberta; 
south in winter to the West Indies and South America. Breeds from the 
middle states northward, and winters south of the United States. 
In Michigan the Bobolink is a summer resident over by far the larger 
part of the state. Wherever there are open meadows and grain fields 
the bird is found at least occasionally, but it must be considered an in- 
frequent resident of the entire Upper Peninsula, and even in the Lower 
Peninsula it is far more abundant south of the parallel of 44° than north 
of it. Ina general way the Saginaw-Grand Valley may be said to be the 
northern limit of its abundance, but we have records of its occurrence, 
sometimes in considerable numbers, in almost every county in the Lower 
Peninsula, and it occurs regularly, although in comparatively small numbers, 
in parts of Mackinac, Chippewa, Delta and Marquette counties in the 
Upper Peninsula, and will doubtless be found at various other points. It 
is a bird of such striking appearance and beautiful song that it is not likely 
to be overlooked at any point where it occurs in numbers. 
This is one of our finest songsters and also one of the birds which is 
believed to be most beneficial to the farmer as a consumer of insects in- 
jurious to mowing lands, meadows and grain fields. It arrives from the 
south the last of April or the first of May, the dates ranging at Petersburg, 
