THE RICE TROOPIAL, OR BOBOLINK. 
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The Red and White-shouldered Blackbied (. Agelaius tricolor) is also found exclusively 
on the western portion of the continent. 
The Yellow-headed Blackbied (. Xanthocephalus icier ocepJialus) is a large species, 
inhabiting the region from Illinois to Texas, and thence to the Pacific, preferring the prairies. 
Dr. Cooper states that the only song this bird has consists of a few hoarse chuckling notes 
and comical squeakings, uttered as if it were a great effort to make any noise at all. Its voice 
is regarded as the harshest of any known bird. It is very abundant in California. It walks on 
the ground much in the same steady manner of the Cow Bird. 
Few of the American birds are better known than the Rice Teoopial, which is familiar 
over the greater part of that continent. 
No American zoologist omits a notice of the Rice Troopial, and there are few writers 
on country life who do not mention this little 
bird under one of the many names by which it 
is known. In some parts of the States it is called 
the Rice Bied, in another the Reed Bied, in 
another the Rice or Reed Bunting, while its 
more familiar title, by which it is called through- 
out the greater part of America, is Bobolink, or 
Bob-Linkum. It also occasionally visits Jamaica, 
where it gets very fat, and is in consequence called 
the Butlee Bied. Its title of Rice Troopial is 
earned by the depredations which it annually 
makes upon the rice crops, though its food is by 
no means restricted to that seed, but consists in a 
very large degree of insects, grubs, and various 
wild grasses. 
Like the preceding species, it is a migratory 
bird, residing during the winter months in the 
southern parts of America and the West Indian 
Islands, and passing in vast flocks northwards at 
the commencement of the spring. Few birds have 
so extensive a range as the Rice Troopial, for it 
is equally able to exist in the warm climates of 
tropical America and the adjacent islands, and 
in the northerly regions of the shores of the St. 
Lawrence. 
According to Wilson, their course of migra- 
tion is as follows: “In the month of April, or 
very early in May, the Rice Buntings, male and 
female, arrive within the southern boundaries 
of the United States, and are seen around the 
town of Savannah, in Georgia, about the fourth 
of May, sometimes in separate parties of males and females, but more generally promiscuously. 
They remain there but a short time, and about the twelfth of May make their appearance 
in the lower part of Pennsylvania as they did in Savannah. While here, the males are 
extremely gay and full of song, frequenting meadows, newly-ploughed fields, sides of creeks, 
rivers, and watery places, feeding on mayflies and caterpillars, of which they destroy great 
quantities. In their passage, however, through Virginia at this season, they do great damage 
to the early wheat and barley while in its milky state. About the 20th of May, they dis- 
appear on their way to the north. Nearly at the same time they arrive in the State of 
New York, spread over the whole New England States, as far as the river St. Lawrence, from 
Lake Ontario to the sea, in all of which places, north of Pennsylvania, they remain during the 
summer, building and rearing their young.” 
