CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON BIRDS. 191 



moveable that a Kingfisher settled on his rod; this thoroughly, awoke him 

 to speechless admiration, and he never could be afterwards persuaded that 

 his bird and those he saw perpetually under glass could be of the same 

 genus. 



Ordinarily speaking, there is some confusion about the Reed Sparrow, 

 Reed Wren, etc., and even our friend Gilbert White made the subject 

 his particular study, coming at last to the conclusion, no doubt the correct 

 one, that the Salicaria, that is, the Motacilla salicaria of Linnaeus,- the 

 Passer arundinaceus minor of Ray, and the Sylvia pTiragmitis of Bechstein 

 were one and the same bird. The single note is certainly very like that 

 of the Common Sparrow, then of the Whitethroat, and there are some 

 turns which resemble in a small degree the song of the Whinchat; but 

 although the song is very varied, yet, as a whole, there is no confounding 

 him with any other bird; his song is, as White aptly calls it, "a sweet 

 polyglot." 



The Reed Bunting is another pretty stream bird, but he is a larger 

 and more sedate and silent bird than our little active, nay restless Sedge 

 Warbler, and I do not call to mind that he has much song; what there 

 is, is, I think, very inward; but he is best known in winter, when, I think, 

 he performs a partial migration to the south, for there are many localities 

 in Berkshire, Hampshire, etc., where he is not known at any other time. 

 The fact, I believe, is, that breeding exclusively on the margins of small 

 rivers, and such places not being so much open to observation as woods 

 and fields, he may be much more common than is usually supposed, but 

 distributed through the country » thus, in such a manner as not to be made 

 the subject of common observation. This bird, however, is so clearly an 

 Eniberiza or Bunting, and the Reed Sparrow* so clearly a Sylvia, that it 

 is impossible to confound them, and yet the ignorant, and even those who 

 should have known better, have done so. One thing may have contributed 

 to the confusion, and that is the nest, for this pretty structure in both is 

 placed in much the same situations, and to a certain extent often alike, 

 namely, placed above the water, and attached to the stems of two or more 

 reeds or other stalks of tall water-plants; and a picture it is, with its 

 small eggs, and owners hard by, perching amongst the waving stems, which 

 seem so necessary to their presence. Escape from the whirl of London 

 life to such a scene on a summer evening, and then tell me whether I 

 overrate it, in calling it charming. 



(To be continued.) 



* Reed Warbler I suppose is meant. — F. 0. Morris. 



