O.&O. Vtll. Feb. 1883. P.AV- 
( 
Bob-o-links. — In our long rides the past 
Spring we did not see ten specimens. 
Last Fall we clipped a piece from a Phila- 
delphia paper apparently written by some 
Bohemian more careful than the rest. 
After describing all the methods of taking 
them, and by whom he estimated the de- 
struction of Reed Birds and Rail from 
Bombay Hook to the mouth of the Dele- 
ware River at 1,000,000 during the month 
of September alone, and the number of 
gunners increase each year, while of 
necessity the number of the Bobolinks are 
becoming reduced, and this destruction is 
on the first section of their flight alone, 
while they have to run the gauntlet from 
the Delaware to their extreme southern 
destination, through the Carolinas to the 
West Indies, as the “ Rice ” and “ Butter 
Bird. ” On their return in the Spring 
the trapper lays in wait and takes 
large quantities with the net, for which 
they usually get about $3. per dozen alive. 
It would seem as if the time was not far 
distant when our cheerful Bobolink would 
be a much rarer bird than at present, as 
no law can reach such wholesale destruc- 
tion through so many different States. 
50. The Reed, Bird [Dolichonyx oryzivora]. By A. C. Waddell. Ibid.,'%., 
p. 135. — A short notice of its habits, and reference to its qualities for the 
table. The wasteful manner in which these birds are sacrificed is evinced 
by the following : “ As they rise in immense flocks and wheel in circuits 
round the fields, a discharge of both barrels, loaded with No. 12 shot, into 
their midst, will frequently bring down fifty or more ; but three quarters 
are lost, as they fall in the thick mass of growing rice, where the water is 
from three to four feet deep ; those that are found being those that fall 
near the edges or on the banks.” Oiuosif© Field 
in. 
