110 
FOOD OF THE BOB-O'-LINK. 
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 
Spink, spank, spink; 
This new life is likely to be 
Hard for a gay young fellow like me. 
Chee, chee, chee." 
His aliases of the rice-bunting and tlie rice-troupial point to 
the damage which Robert of Lincoln commits in the rice plantations. 
To his appetite for oats we have already alluded. But, in truth, he 
is monstrously indiscriminating in his diet. The young lush stalks 
of the early wheat and barley please his palate mightily, and render 
him very obnoxious to the farmer; but, on the other hand, he 
sweeps away the destructive May-fly and voracious caterpillar by 
the hundred. On other insects he is also content to make a meal ; 
and he shows himself partial to the young ears of the maize, 
and the seed of the wild oats, — or, in Pennsylvanian dialect, reeds, — 
which grow so plentifully along the marsliy shores of the great rivei-s. 
" Robert of Lincoln at length is made 
Sober with work, and silent with care ; 
Off is his holiday garment laid, 
Half forgotten that merry air : 
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 
Spink, spank, spink ; 
Nobody knows but my mate and I 
Where our nest and our nestlings lie. 
Chee, chee, chee. 
'■ Summer wanes ; the children are grown ; 
Fun and frolic no more he knows. 
Robert of Lincoln's a humdrum crone ; 
Off he flies, and we sing as he goes : 
Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-liuk, 
Spink, spank, spink; 
When you can pipe that merry old strain, 
Robert of Lincoln, come back again. 
Chee, chee, chee." 
In the month of October our musical friend visits the island 
of Jamaica, where his plumpness procures him the sobriquet of the 
butter-bird. 
IN THE AMERICAN WOODS. 
Continuing our tour in the American woods, we meet with 
many birds in respect to which we would gladly gossip with our 
