76 AMATEUR ORNITHOLOGY. 
his plump little body as a Reed-bird. I had read of him 
as a Rice-bird inthe Carolinas, and as a Butter-bird in Cuba, 
After five years I found his nest in the prairie, reminding 
me of Thoreau’s long search for one, when all the time he 
was within twelve feet of it. Thoreau has also given an al- 
most perfect description of his song. He hears him in an 
apple tree concealed from view. The bird is “ just touching 
the strings of his theorbo, his glassichord, his water-organ, 
and one or two notes globe themselves and fall in liquid 
bubbles from his tuning throat. It is as though he touched 
his harp within a vase of liquid melody, and when he lifted 
it out, the notes fell like bubbles from the trembling strings. 
Methinks they are the most liquidly sweet and melodious 
sounds I ever heard. . . . Away he launches and the 
meadow is all bespattered with melody. Its notes fall with 
the apple blossoms in the orchard... . It is the foretaste 
of such strains as never fell on mortal ears, to hear which we 
should rush to our doors and contribute all that we possess 
and are.” 
There is another description of the Bobolink’s song which I 
have never seen in print. It was given to me from memory 
by word of mouth, by an Ex-Secretary of Agriculture, 
formerly under President Hayes’ administration : 
“ Bobolink, Bobolink, 
Che-wink, che-wink, 
Che-weedle-weedle, 
Bobolink, 
Never let Mary Sink 
Gad about with Harryhoss Muckle Weaver, 
Nor shall she marry 
Michael Mangle-W urtzell.” 
C. H. S., in the Chicago Tribune of April 28, 1895, 
writes: “Some fine morning in May you will be apprised by 
an extraordinarily voluble outburst of jingling melody that 
‘June’s bridesman, poet of the year, 
Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here : 
