. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. 322 USEFUL BIRDS. of ragweed, barn grass, and panic grass form probably the greatest portion ; but the Cowbird eats more grain than the Eed-winged Blackbird. Undoubtedly its food habits are on the whole beneficial; but, as every Cowbird is reared at the expense of the lives of at least two other birds, the reputa- tion of the species suffers accordingly, and its
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. 322 USEFUL BIRDS. of ragweed, barn grass, and panic grass form probably the greatest portion ; but the Cowbird eats more grain than the Eed-winged Blackbird. Undoubtedly its food habits are on the whole beneficial; but, as every Cowbird is reared at the expense of the lives of at least two other birds, the reputa- tion of the species suffers accordingly, and its social habits are certainly not exemplary, if judged by human standards. Bobolink. Skunk Blackbird. Reed Bird. Rice Bird. Doliclionyx oryzivorus. Length. — About seven and one-fourth inches. Adult Male.—^In spring and early summer, mainly black; nape creamy buff; streaks on upper back grayish-white; shoulders and lower back ashy-white; in August and September the plumage resembles that of the female. Adult Female and Young. — Upper parts brown, dark-streaked; lower parts yellowish-brown, unstreaked. Nest. — On ground, in grass. Eggs. — Gray, spotted with brown and overlaid with dusky streaks, blotches, and scrawls. Season. —May to September. The Bobolink is the harlequin of the spring meadows. He is a happy-go-lucky fellow, with his suit on wrong side up, the black below and the white above ; a reckless, rollicking sort of a fowl, throwing care to the winds, and always bent on a lark. His spirits are of the effervescent kind, and his music bubbles irre- pressibly forth at such a rate that half a dozen notes seem to be crowding upon the heels of every one uttered. Indeed, this is about the only bird that completely baffles the latter-day "interpreters" of bird music. His notes tumble out with such headlong rapid- ity, in an apparent effort to jump over each other, that it is next to impossible for the scribe to set them down in the proper sequence of music
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherb, booksubjectbirds
