"When Nature had made all her birds,
And had no cares to think on,
She gave a rippling laugh,
And out there flew a Bobolinkon."
No American ornithologist omits mention of the Bobolink, and naturalists
generally have described him under one of the many names by which he is
known. In some States he is called the Rice Bird, in others Reed Bird,
the Rice or Reed Bunting, while his more familiar title, throughout the
greater part of America, is Bobolink, or Bobolinkum. In Jamaica, where
he gets very fat during his winter stay, he is called the Butter Bird.
His title of Rice Troopial is earned by the depredations which he
annually makes upon the rice crops, though his food "is by no means
restricted to that seed, but consists in a large degree of insects,
grubs, and various wild grasses." A migratory bird, residing during the
winter in the southern parts of America, he returns in vast multitudes
northward in the early Spring. According to Wilson, their course of
migration is as follows: "In April, or very early in May, the Rice
Buntings, male and female, arrive within the southern boundaries of
the United States, and are seen around the town of Savannah, Georgia,
sometimes in separate parties of males and females, but more generally
promiscuously. They remain there but a short time, and about the middle
of May make their appearance in the lower part of Pennsylvania. While
here the males are extremely gay and full of song, frequenting meadows,
newly plowed fields, sides of creeks, rivers, and watery places, feeding
on May flies and caterpillars, of which they destroy great quantities.
In their passage, however, through Virginia at this season, they do
great damage to the early wheat and barley while in their milky state.
About the 20th of May they disappear on their way to the North. Nearly
at the same time they arrive in the State of New York, spread over the
whole of the New England States, as far as the river St. Lawrence, and
from Lake Ontario to the sea. In all of these places they remain during
the Summer, building their nests and rearing their young."
The Bobolink's song is a peculiar one, varying greatly with the
occasion. As he flys southward, his cry is a kind of clinking note; but
the love song addressed to his mate is voluble and fervent. It has been
said that if you should strike the keys of a pianoforte haphazard, the
higher and the lower singly very quickly, you might have some idea of
the Bobolink's notes. In the month of June he gradually changes his
pretty, attractive dress and puts on one very like the females, which is
of a plain rusty brown, and is not reassumed until the next season of
nesting. The two parent birds in the plate represent the change from the
dark plumage in which the bird is commonly known in the North as the
Bobolink, to the dress of yellowish brown by which it is known
throughout the South as the Rice or Reed Bird.
His nest, small and a plain one, too, is built on the ground by his
industrious little wife. The inside is warmly lined with soft fibers of
whatever may be nearest at hand. Five pretty white eggs, spotted all
over with brown are laid, and as soon
"As the little ones chip the shell
And five wide mouths are ready for food,
'Robert of Lincoln' bestirs him well,
Gathering seeds for this hungry brood."