76 AMATEUR ORNITHOLOGY. 



his plump little body as a Reed-bird. I had read of him 

 as a Rice-bird in the 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-Wurtzell." 



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 j^ear, 

 Gladness on wings, the bobolink, is here : 



