Bob-O-Link
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BOBLINK, RICE BIRD (dolichonyx BIRD, or or icterus acripennis), oryzivorus or a common American bird found from Paraguay to Canada, the only one of its kind, and that difficult to classify. Some place it near the Baltimore bird (icterus), others near starlings, but both the characteristics and the character of the bob-o-link exhibit much that is unique. In the male the head, lower surface, and tail are black, while the upper surface is lighter, yellowish white in front, black with yellow streaks behind. The color note change with the seasons. and the the The female is much plainer-yellowish brown with darker streaks above, and pale grayish yellow below. The name originally Bob Lincoln-is an imitation of the bird's note. In song, the full-throated male bob-o-link is unique, rivaling the lark. The change of the male in color and form at the breeding time is very striking. He becomes black and white more emphatically, so as sometimes to be called the skunk bird, and acquires a broad form and a curious, mincing gait. The bob-o-link is a bird of passage, spending the winter in the West Indies. In summer it is found as far N. as the banks of the Saskatchewan, in 54° lat., but is most plentiful in the Atlantic States and other eastern parts of the United States, where it is to be seen in every meadow and cornfield. It renders good ood service by the destruction of insects and their larvæ; but in the South, both in April and August, at seed time and harvest, its ravages seriously cripple the rice-growing industry, and destroy about a fourth of the crop. Thousands are killed for the table. On account of their beauty and powers of song many are caught, caged and sold in the markets. ,
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that the bobolink winters "in the West Indies" and that its ravages "destroy about a fourth" of the Southern rice crop, with thousands killed for the table and many caged for market. In fact the islands are only a waystation: the bobolink winters in southern South America, in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, and its round trip of roughly 20,000 km is the longest of any New World blackbird. The rice-bird conflict Collier's described was already ending as commercial rice growing left the Carolinas and Georgia, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 shut down the shooting and the cage-bird trade in the United States; the species is now protected. The 1921 hesitation over its classification has been settled, though gently: it is placed in Icteridae with the New World blackbirds and orioles, and remains, as Collier's said, "the only one of its kind" in its genus. Its real modern trouble is quieter than gunfire, as populations have fallen sharply with the loss of hayfields and grassland and earlier mowing that destroys nests.
Written for this edition, 2026.