Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-09-17
THE BOB o. LINCOLN,
This is One of the Prettiest Song Birds
the Country.

This is One of the Prettiest Song-Birds in
the Country.
The merry bobolink is one of the pretti-
est song-blrds In the country. In eastern
Pennsy vania, along the Delaware, the
bobollnk is known as the reed bird, and
Is eagerly hunted by sportsmen.
You must likewise know That the bobo-
link has third name rice bird" That
is what 1t is called in southern states. It
is so named because 1T attacks the rice
| fields and devours the grain. We of the
north know little of the trouble it causes
by this especial appetite. The magnitude
of the depredations of the little bobolink
can hardly be appreciated outside the mar
row belt of rice fields along the coasts of
few of the southern states. In innumera-
/ BILE hosts the birds visit tie fields at the
time of planting in spring, eating the
seed grain before the fields are 'hoOded,'
and then fly back north into PENNSYLVANIA,
New York and New England, where they
spend the summer. About the middle Of
| August they commence to migrate south
again, and swoop down upon the rice fs Is
once more, just at the time of harvesting
the crop. What rice escaped in the spring
now has little hope of surviving, for as
the grain natures the birds pick it off
IN the face of the most desperate op-
position.
To prevent total destruction of the crop
during the inyasions, thousands of men
and boys, called 'bird- minders, are en-
ployed by the rice planters; hundreds of
thousands of pounds of gunpowder are
burned, and millions of birds killed.
still the number Of boboinks invading the
rice-felds each year seems in no way
diminished, and the aggregated annual
loss they cause is estimated by DR.. G..
Hart Merriman, ornithologost of the
United States department of agriculture,
at 100000
Between spring and summer, when the
bobolink is at the north, he displays none
of these ruinous ways of his. He is all
beauty and music. Sometimes he may
plumber a corn-feld slightly, but in Penn
sylvania he is not guilty even of that
slight offense. He is known on the farms
of the north only as a bird most snowy
In his dress of black, white and yellow
feathers. The song of the bobolink is a
peculiar, rapid, jingling, mdescribable
medley of sounds, started first by one
bird, quickly followed by another and an.
othtr until the whole flock are engaged
in a grand concert. Then, suddenly,
without any apparent reason, they all, at
the same instant, stop. These delightful
choral concerts endear them to the farmer
boys and girls of Pennsylvania. The
"mellow, metallic chink' the birds utter
has given them name to initiate their
song" bobolink. When the birds mate,
the male appears to lose his vocal powers,
and is heard to utter only sharp, cIink-
ing note, like that of the female. And
when they settle down to rlundering
1 IL l. tool knIY
melody, for then they can only chirp.
Another strange ching about the bobo-
link is that he loves the darkness of night.
They only migrate, or travel, at night.
They winter in the West Indies, where
they get 50 fat that the natives have
given them fourth name-the Clutter
birds"