This is the Rice Bird of the Southern States, the Reed Bird of Pennsylvania, and the Bobolink of the New England States, and is about as well known in New England as the Robin Red-Breast is in Old England. His note is highly musical, and the rapidity with which it is uttered makes it lively and cheering. To me it is charming; I think there is something woodland-wild about it that no other bird's note possesses except the English Sky Lark; and in the spring of the year, when descending from the top of some tall tree to the green grass below, warbling its delightful notes in the descent, it always reminds me of that bird. The note of this bird has been translated by the ingenious and much esteemed naturalist, Nuttall, as follows:

Bobolink, Bobolink, Tom Denny, Tom Denny, Pay me the five Pounds you borrowed of me more than a y-e-a-r-a-go.

I have before stated that a close observer of birds can discern a difference in their notes, even of the same species. During my residence in the country, some years ago, there was one of these birds which had its nest in a field of grass of about an acre, adjoining the house of my next neighbor. This bird had a very peculiar note, different, I think, from any I have ever heard; and, although surrounded with these birds, which had their nests in the adjacent meadows, besides having them in cages in the house, all of which were singing, I could always tell when this bird sang; and the inmates of my family also would say, when they heard it, - "There is Mr.------'s Bobolink singing." This bird, being undisturbed, raised its brood before the grass was cut, and dispersed over the fields with its young, and the rest its species. And it is a remarkable fact, that the next season a bird, having the same note, came back to the same little field again; there was no mistaking the note; if not the same bird, it must have been one of his descendants who inherited the father's voice exactly. That birds form attachment to their old locations, and will come back to them, there is no doubt; and I believe in this instance, that this was the same identical bird that had come thousands of miles, and passed over many lakes and rivers, and many a field of grass, to the old spot where it had been so happy the season before, again to raise another family.

In the month of July, the male of this bird (the plumage of which is white and black) begins gradually to change in color, and about the end of August the plumage is like the female and young, yellow, streaked with brown; but I have now in my possession four Rice Birds, or Bobolinks, who have not yet changed the color of a feather.* They are in beautiful plumage, the same as in the spring; not a shade lighter, and sing every fine day. Their not changing is very remarkable. I have kept these birds for many years, and I never knew an instance of the kind before.

* Dec. 25.

Food

They are clean birds, and easily kept in a cage; but the cage, to keep the bird well, should be at least eighteen inches long, and the roosts, or perches, placed as far apart as possible, to enable the bird to exercise its wings in leaping from one roost to the other. I have found this beneficial to them, and it induces them to take more exercise in the cage. Feed them with Canary seed alone, as they are much inclined to obesity, and often die of something like apoplexy. I never could get them to eat of vegetables; sometimes they will eat a bit of apple, but in general they eat nothing but their seed. A bird that is kept for some time in a cage might be induced to eat of green stuffs; if it did, it would be highly beneficial to it in a domestic state.

Characteristics Of The Sexes

The male of the second season is easily distinguished from the female; in the spring it is black, with a broad band of dark yellow across the hind neck, the feathers on the back tipped with gray, brightening into white at the wing. The female has the upper parts light yellowish brown, streaked with blackish brown; lower parts, a light grayish yellow.

Location

Found throughout the United States in summer; late in the autumn, they migrate south.