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 soaiiing 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 and when the water is withdrawn the birds at once attack the seed.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 countr3^ 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. 13 2 



