Plate LX VI II. 
Fig. 12. DOUCHONYX ORYZIVORUS-Bobotink. 
The Bobolink, or Reecl-bird of the South, is a common summer-resident in suitable localities through- 
out Ohio. About Circleville, there are a number of fields in different directions, where they can be found 
every year, yet there are few citizens who know the bird, or knowing it, have ever seen it here. They 
arrive about the first of May and remain until September, during which time but one brood is usually reared 
LOCALITY : 
The Bobolink builds its nest in damp meadow-lands, and also in clover- and timothy-fields in dry 
uplands. It prefers for its nest a field containing a mixture of blue-grass and red-clover, with here and 
there small trees and bushes, and especially is such a locality desirable, if it contains a little ditch, or 
several low spots of ground which are continually damp. 
POSITION : 
The nest rests on the ground in a little natural depression, and is well concealed by the luxuriant 
clover or grass surrounding it. 
MATERIALS t 
The chief materials of construction are grass and clover stalks arranged circularly and crosswise, 
the finest material being used for a lining. Externally, it measures from four to four and a half inches: 
internally, its diameter is about three inches, and its depth about two inches. There is not much of 
interest about this nest. It is well built for its position, and is composed of the materials which answer- 
best for its concealment. 
EGGS: 
The complement of eggs is four or five. They measure in long-diameter from .70 to .90, and in 
short-diameter from .55 to .65. A common size is about .60 x .81. The ground-color is gray ; the marks 
consist of large blotches, spots, and speckles, and occasionally scrawls of warm, rich brown, or a darker 
and heavier brown, which, when laid on thickly, appears nearly black. The deep shell-marks are 
frequently numerous, and vary in tint according to depth, from a darker shade of the ground-color to 
purplish-gray. One egg before me is thickly marked with large, irregular, and sometimes confluent 
blotches of Vandyke brown from point to base, and the parts of the shell which have escaped the blotches 
are thickly speckled with the same brown. Deep shell-marks are inconspicuous. Another egg is spotted 
and speckled with sepia about the base, the pointed half of the shell being only speckled slightly with 
the same color; no deep shell-marks. Another specimen is blotched and spotted moderately from point 
to base with rich brown, and also speckled and marked with a scrawl or two. There are a number of 
deep shell-marks, and these give a purplish cast to the egg. Other eggs differ in pattern through numerous 
combinations, as varied in extent as the markings on the eggs of the Song Sparrow. 
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