The Bobolink, formerly very abundant 
in this locality, lias hardly made an appear- 
ance the present season. I have seen but 
two or three pairs during the entire Sum- 
mer, where previously from seventy-five 
to one hundred pairs have nested. Their 
non-appearance has caused me to keep a 
sharp lookout for them, and in many mead- 
ows where they have been very common, 
not a single bird could be seen this season. 
What can have caused them to desert 
their old breeding grounds"? — C. O. Tracy, 
Taftsville , Vt. 
[We have had an article in type for two months on this 
subject, but the figures were given from memory and we 
were not sure of them, so the matter lays over until we have 
time. The reason is patent, however, to those living on 
the New Jersey marshes and the Delaware river and further 
South. — Ei>.] 
O.&O. Vll. Nov. 1882. p. J7$ 
V/. Middlesex Co. Maas. *4- 
June 25 - 30 . 1880. 
Ashby — — Common and generally Distributed throughout the 
farming country, one or two pairs nesting ir£evSry fielaof 
English g 'ass. ,r es saw none in any of the damp meadows. On June 
20 oh I observed a male feeding young which were scattered about m 
a field of tall grass. After getting a supply of food which 
could be plainly seen in his bill, he would fly about oyer the 
field, at the height of 30 or 4o feet, quivering his wings rapid- 
v / P^ eelsel y as w hen m the act of singing on wing. Sometimes he 
would circle m this way for several minutes, occasionally pois- 
ing over one spot and scaling down nearly to the Jj££rfvould would 
, _'! e a E aln and resume his peculiar flight. After several fail- 
ures he would at last discover the young bird of which 
he was in search and would disappear in the grass for a minute 
oo two while feeding it. w e observed that he visited different 
v)e rp 1 S f + f *5® fl9ld at dlfferent times, showing that the yourm 
K seemed remartablB — he final h» 
