Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/244

* BOATSWAIN. 212 BOBOLINK. suggest a marlinspike, the boatswain's badge of office; in fact, skuas are also known locally in New England as 'marlinspikcs.' BO'AZ. See Jacuix. BOB AC, bo'bac (Pol. bobak. Russ. habakH). A gregarious marmot or woodcliuck (Arctomys bobac) of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which resembles the American prairie-dog in ap- pearance and habits. BOB'ADIIi, Captain. A blustering, cowardly braggart, whose personality, lines, and fate form the most entertaining element in Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour. He lodges with Cob and Tib and is given to the use of 'dainty oaths.' His name has been thought to have been adopted from that of Bobadilla, Governor of Cuba, who sent Columbus back to Spain as a prisoner. BOBADILLA, bu'ua-De'lj-a, Fkaxcisco ( ? - 1502). A Spanish commander of the Order of Calatrava, appointed in 1499 to supersede Co- lumbus as Viceroy of the Indies. He was fully empowered to conduct an investigation of the affairs of the colony of Hispaniola, and set sail with two caravels from Cadiz in June, 1500. He was both insolent and inetBcient, and he had no sooner landed in the island than he proceeded to high-handed and stupid demonstrations of au- thority. By his orders Columbus was seized, placed in chains, and sent back to Spain. The Admiral was. however, received with great con- sideration by the nation and Court. In 1502 Co- lumbus set out on his fourth and final voyage, and arrived at Hispaniola on .June 29. On the first of July, Bobadilla, who, after his utter mis- management, had been recalled under arrest, left San Domingo in one of the vessels of a large fleet commanded by Torres, and was dro ied in a hurricane. BOBBIN (Fr. bohinc. of uncertain origin). A snuiU wooden or metal roller, flanged at one or both ends, on which thread or yarn is wound for sewing, weaving, etc. Bobbins for weaving are commonly made with a flange at one end only, but most other forms of bobbins are flanged at both ends. The ordinary 'spool' on which sew- ing-thread is wound is a familiar example of a wooden bobbin, and the metal implement for holding the thiead in a sewing-machine shuttle is a good example of a metal bobbin. The manu- facture of bobbins, which are used in enormous numbers, is usually carried on by means of auto- matic machinery. In the manufacture of bob- bins or spools for sewing-tliroad the wooden blocks, cut to the proper length, are thro%ii into the hopper of the macliine, whence they are taken automatically, turned, flanged, bored, and dis- charged complete and ready for use. See article Loom. BOBBIN-BOY, The. A boy's book, founded on the life of Ccn. Nathaniel P. Banks, who was popularly lalled by this name, because, when a youth, he had spent several years working in a cotton-factor^'. BOB'BINET' {bobbin + net). A machine imitation of pillow lace. (See Lace.) A fabric conipo.sed of hexagonal meshes, formed by a series of threads crossing and partially twisting around each other. BOBBIO, bob'bf-o. An episcopal city in north Italy, near the confluence of the Bobbio and the Trebbia, 37 miles northeast of Genoa (Map: HEAD AND FOOT OF BOBOLINK. Male in summer plumage. Italy, D .3). In 612 Saint Columbanus founded an abbey here, whose famous library, consisting of 700 manuscrij)ts, made known to the world by Niebuhr and others, is now partly in the Vatican, partly in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Pop- ulation, in 1881 (commune)," 4500; in 1901, 4848. BOBOLI (bo'bAle) GABDENS. Magnificent public gardens near the Pitti Palace, in Florence, planned in 1550. under the patronage of Eleanora of Toledo and the direction of the sculptor Tri- bolo. BOBOLINK (earlier bohUncohi, Bob o' Lin- coln, bob-o-lincon : in imitation of the sounds produced by the bird). One of the most con- spicuous and interesting song-birds of North America, found wherever plains, prairie mead- ows, or cultivated fields offer it a suitable home. It is a member of the Icterida but stands apart from the orioles and blackbirds liy reason of its pointed tail-feathers and long middle toe. as Dolichonyx oryzivorus. The length is about 7 inches, of which 2% inches go to the tail; the spring or breed- ing plumage of ^^KJ^''^^^ the adult male is "^ ^^^fn, -j^ black, with the h i n d h e a d and nape, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts buff, inclining to oeh- raceous on the neck and ashy to- ward the tail; in this plumage a popular local name is skunk- blackbird. The female is protectively denied this gay suit, and is clothed in neutral yellowish brown, much streaked ; and the young of both sexes wear a similar dress until the iuales mature. (See Plate of Blackbirds.) Over tr.e region of the dry Western plains and mountains, as far as the Salt Lake Valley, a paler form prevails, dis- tinguished as variety ulhinuvha. Such is the early summer gayety of plumage, when the males are rollicking above the fields where they are breeding in the Northern States and southern Canada, few stopping for that purpose south of latitude 40°. For their nests they choose open grassy spaces or fields of cultivated grass and grain ; and as the spreading cultivation of the country has multiplied these conditions they have dispersed much more widely, especially in the East, than they originally extended, and for a long time vastly increased in numbers. Arriv- ing from the South in May, a pair take posses- sion of a field. The female constructs on the ground a nest of grasses skillfully entwined and often ingeniously hidden anumg tlie stems of the growing plants, in which are laid four or five eggs (for description of birds' eggs, see Ecg), dull white, flecked and marbled with Vandyke brown, upon which she sits very closely for about a fortnight. During this nuptial season — from their first arrival until mid-.july — the male is driving from the vicinity every intruder he can frighten away, especially rivals of his own kind, and making himself delightfully consinciious by his gay ac- tivity upon the wing, and his loud, sprightly, and unceasing song, which has a peculiar ringing or chinking quality adapted to a rattling melody,