BOB-O'-LINK'S ENEMIES. 
109 
" Robert of Lincoln's Quaker wife, 
Pretty and quiet, with plain brown wings. 
Passing at home a patient life, 
Broods in the grass while her husband sings 
" Modest and shy as a nun is she ; 
One weak chirp is her only note. 
Braggart and prince of braggarts is he, 
Pouring boasts from his little throat : 
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-Hnk, 
Spink, spank, spink ; 
Never was I afraid of man ; 
Catch me, cowardly knaves, if you can ! 
Chee, chee, chee." 
If he did feel some timidity, however, he might well be excused, 
for man pursues him incessantly with snare and gun. As soon as the 
oat-fields are ripe, swarms of bob-o'-links descend upon them; and 
enjoying daily abundant meals, they grow extremely fat, and are 
supposed by American connoisseurs to be little inferior in flavour 
to the celebrated ortolans of Europe. As a natural consequence, 
everybody who has a gun hastens to provide himself with so luscious 
a dish. The report of musketry along the reedy shores of the 
Delaware and the Schuylkill is described as almost incessant, and 
as resemblinw a running fire. At this season the markets of Phila- 
delphia exhibit proof of the results of this wholesale gunnery-practice 
in the strings of reed-birds which ornament almost every stall. 
" Six white eggs on a bed of hay. 
Flecked with purple, a pretty sight ! 
There as the mother sits all day, 
Robert is singing with all his might : 
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 
Spink, spank, spink; 
Nice good wife that never goes out. 
Keeping house while I frolic about. 
Chee, chee, chee." 
According to Wilson, the female lays only five eggs, which are 
of a bluish white, spotted irregulai'ly with blackish brown. 
" Soon as the little ones chip the shell. 
Six wide mouths are open for food ; 
Robert of Lincoln bestirs him well. 
Gathering seeds for the hungry brood. 
