OUR GREATEST TRAVELERS 



365 



BREEDING 

 MIGRATION 



RANGE 

 RANGE 



WINTER RANGE 



R.S.S 



THE MIGRATION ROUTE OF THE BOBOLINK IS CHANGING (SEE PAGE 364) 



ago. Then the newly invented mowing 

 machine and the horsepower hay-rake 

 began to destroy thousands of nests and 

 caused a marked diminution in the bobo- 

 link census. 



The case of the bobolink is a fitting 

 close to this article, because it is reveal- 

 ing to us at the present time the manner 

 of evolution of a new migration route. 

 By nature a lover of damp meadows, it 

 was formerly cut off from the western 



United States by the intervening arid 

 region. But with the advent of irriga- 

 tion and the bringing of large areas 

 under cultivation, little colonies of nest- 

 ing bobolinks are beginning to appear 

 here and there almost to the Pacific. 

 Some of them are shown by dots on the 

 accompanying map, and the probability 

 is that the not distant future will see 

 a large increase in these trans-Rocky 

 Mountain bobolinks. 



