Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-11-05
FROM BoaoLlNk TO REED Bird.
A They Fly South They DevAstate the
Rice Ffelds,

Rice Fields.
Popl Bangl The swamps and marshes
of the Atlantic coast are full OF sports
men these days, shooting reed birds.
The drowned fields of wild rice along
the shores of Delaware bay and the
Chesapeake are vocal with their call of
"Chink, chinkl" Thanks to the pot
hunters, great numbers of the beath-
cred delicacies are now finding their
way to the markets of the great cities,
and no gourmet pauses while devouring
a round dozen of them for breakfast
10 consider that he is attacking an orni-
biological problem of extraordinary
interest.
The story of the reed bird is ro-
nance. It is tale of the most destruc-
tive feathered animal known to the
continent-an animal against which
man has waged vain war for more than
two centuries. The rice fields of the
south are well-nigh ruined lby it every
year. Its periodical migration from
the far north to regions below the
equator is one of the most astonishing
performances credited to birds, part of
the journey being a fight without
pause or rest across 400 miles of sea.
But strangest of all is the annual trans
formation which the creature UNDER
goes from the reed bird into the bobo-
link, and again from the bobolink into
the reed bird. It is like two birds in
one.
Most people in the northern part Of
the United States are familiar with the
bobolink--a bird of tuneful song and
pretty plumage, black beneath and
grayish white on the back, with a buff
spot on the back of the neck. Its breed
ing grounds are north of the latitude OF
southern New Jersey, West Virginia
and central Illinois, extending north
ward to Montreal and Lake Winnipeg
and westward almost across the great
plains. Over this wide area it feeds on
seeds, insects and whatever it can pick
up. It makes it's grass nest in fields
and meadows, building on the ground,
and it lays from four to seven grayish-
white eggs, blotehed with olive and
brown spots. The nest is so incon-
spicuous as to be very hard to find.
By the middle of July the bobolinls is
through breeding and has begun to
molt. It doffs its pretty plumage and
puts on a sober coat of mottled yellow
ish gray all over. At the same time IL
stops singing and for many months
utters no other note than call of
''chink." In a word, it has assumed the
guise or disguise of the familiar reed
bird and now it is ready to start on its
annual journey southwark.
From north and west the birds wing
their way in great docks, all heading to-
ward Florida. They are rapid travellers
and pretty soon they strike the swamps
and estuaries of the middle Atlantic
coast. 1t is the season of the ripening
of the wild rice and they pause for
awhile to feed upon it.
The voracity of the birds is such that
fear is secondary to the passion for
eating. When disturbed in one part of
field they fly just far enough to be out
of gunshot and alight again. Some
times the entire crop is host and the
planter thinks he is doing very well if
the damage amounts to only four or
five bushels an acre. The aggregate
loss runs up into the millions of dol
lars. At length the time arrives when
the robbers must take their departure
and they go almost as suddenly as they
came, winging their way onward to the
peninsula of Florida, whence they leave
for a more southern clime.-Philadel-
Dhia Times