tisteeAs Uhl UabrOsNe BU Libel TN 18 
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remind one of the Chestnut-collared Longspur and, to a lesser extent, of 
the Lapland Longspur. With his song in mind, John Burroughs called the 
Alaskan or Western North American Longspur the ‘Northland Bobolink.” 
Yet no bird lover could mistake a Bobolink for a Longspur. 
The Bobolink is our only American songbird that is black below and 
largely white above. Because of the black and white striping of his back 
he has sometimes been termed the ‘skunk blackbird,” an opprobrious name 
unworthy of a charming bird. His buff collar is in striking contrast to his 
otherwise black and white feathers. The Bobolink is at its best in 
plumage and in song in the months of May and June. In August the males 
lose their striking plumage and assume the yellowish-buff sparrcwlike garb 
of their mates. Bobolinks moult twice yearly; other members of their 
family only once. 
“The Bobolink’s bill is more like a sparrow’s than that of any member 
- of his family except the Cowbird.” Bobolinks, male and female, have 
rounded tails with the quills pointed like those of woodpeckers, yet they are 
birds, not of the trees, but of the meadow grasses. 
The Bobolink’s song is individual. No other bird tries to imitate it. It 
sounds as if the author were bubbling over with a spontaneous joy which he 
manages to impart to some degree to the listener. The bird rises on quiver- 
ing wings from the grass and bursts into song and then drops into the 
grasses again. Sometimes, but not often, the Bobolink sings from a fence 
post. As George Gladden says, “His song stands alone in the musical 
utterances of American birds.’”’ Of course the males precede the females in 
spring migration, and when a dozen birds sing together they make a 
splendid chorus. The song is “all of the joy of life.” The call note is a 
metallic chink. Roger Tory Peterson says that the bobolink’s flight note, 
pink, heard overhead in the summer and fall, is unlike any other bird note. 
Bobolinks seem to like a little rain. In a light shower a Bobolink will 
perch on a weed top, seemingly entirely happy, for minutes at a time. 
Edna St. Vincent Millay mentions this in saying, 
Only the Bobolink 
On the rainy rhubarb blossom 
Knows my heart. 
The Bobolink’s nest is usually not to be found in the grasses of field or 
meadow. It is there, in a fairly deep little depression, but the male gives 
prompt warning on the appearance of an intruder, and the little mother 
bird steals silently away. The eggs, four to seven in number, vary in color 
from pale gray to pale rufous and are marked in differing shades of brown, 
gray, or lilac. The fluffy buff and yellow balls that are the Bobolinks’ 
children readily conceal themselves. 
Like the Red-winged Blackbird, the Bobolink sometimes has more than 
one wife. While rearing their young, the Bobolinks make insects their 
chief food. Later the entire family turns to a vegetable diet. In the North 
the birds do little damage to grain. In earlier years they were considered 
a pronounced nuisance to the rice-growers of the South. Now that rice- 
growing has lessened in the Southern states, Bobolinks may be more kindly 
