138 Birds Every Child Should Know 
sparrows. A brown, streaked bird, with some 
buff and a few white feathers, she shades into 
the colours of the ground as well as they and 
covers her loose heap of twigs, leaves and grasses 
in the hay field so harmoniously that few 
people ever find it or the clever sitter. 
As early as the Fourth of July, bobolinks 
begin to desert the choir, being the first birds 
to leave us. Travelling southward by easy 
stages, they feed on the wild rice in the marshes 
until, late in August, enormous flocks reach 
the cultivated rice fields of South Carolina and 
Georgia. 
On the way, a great transformation has 
gradually taken place in the male bobolink’s 
dress. At the North he wore a black, buff 
and white wedding garment, with the unique 
distinction of being lighter above than below; 
but this he has exchanged, feather by feather, 
for a striped, brown, sparrowy winter suit like 
his mate’s and children’s, only with a little 
more buff about it. 
In this inconspicuous dress the reedbirds, or 
ricebirds, as bobolinks are usually called south 
of Mason and Dixon’s line, descend in hordes 
upon the rice plantations when the grain is 
in the milk, and do several millions of dollars’ 
worth of damage to the crop every year, sad, 
sad to tell. Of course, the birds are snared, 
shot, poisoned. In southern markets half 
