A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 627 
Family Icteridae: Blackbirds, Orioles, Etc. 
Bobolink: Dolichonyx oryzivorus. S. R. 
After moult Reed-bird 
Length: 6.50-7 inches. 
Male: Black head, chin, tail, wings, and under parts. Buff patch on 
back of neck; also buff edges to some tail and wing feathers. 
Rump and upper wing coverts white. Bill brown. In autumn 
similar to female. 
Female: Below yellowish brown. Above striped brown, except on 
rump, with yellow and white tips to some feathers. Two dark 
stripes on crown. 
Song: A delightful, incoherent melody; sung oftentimes as the bird 
soars upward. 
Season: Early May to October. 
Nest: A loose heap of twigs and grass on the ground in low meadows 
and hayfields ; common, but very difficult to discover. 
Eggs: 4-6, clear gray, with clouds and markings of dark brown. 
The Bobolink, the bird of two lives in one! The wild, 
ecstatic black and buff singer, who soars above the May 
meadows, leaving a trail of rippling music, and in autumn 
the brown striped bird who, voiceless but for a metallic 
“ chink,” is hunted through the marshes by the gunners. 
“ The bobolink is a common summer resident of the United 
States, north of about latitude 40°, and from New England 
westward to the Great Plains, wintering beyond our southern 
border. In New England there are few birds, if any, around 
which so much romance has clustered; in the south none on 
whose head so many maledictions have been heaped. The 
bobolink, entering the United States from the south at a time 
when the rice fields are freshly sown, pulls up the young 
plants and feeds upon the seed. Its stay, however, is not long, 
and it soon hastens northward, where it is welcomed as a 
herald of summer. During its sojourn in the northern states 
it feeds mainly upon insects and small seeds of useless plants ; 
but while rearing its young, insects constitute its chief food, 
and almost the exclusive diet of its brood. After the young 
are able to fly, the whole family gathers into a small flock and 
begins to live almost entirely upon vegetable food. This con- 
sists for the most part of weed seeds, since in the north these 
birds do not appear to molest grain to any great extent. They 
eat a few oats, but their stomachs do not reveal a great quan- 
tity of this or any other grain. As the season advances they 
