686 



APPENDIX. 



REED BUNTING. 



(Emberiza schoEJiiculus, Linn. Syst. i. p. 311. sp. 17. Lath. Ind. v. 

 sp. 13. Temm. Man. d'Orn. i. p. 307. E. arundinacea, Gmel. Syst. 

 i. p. 881. Lath. Ind. p. 403. Ortolan de Rosseaux, Buff. Ois. 

 iv. p. 315. Ib. pi. Enlum. 247. fig. 2. [male.] and 477. fig. 2. [fe- 

 male.] Reed Bunting, Brit. Zool. No. 120. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 368. 

 E. Lewin's Brit. Birds, ii. t. 75. Bewick. Brit. Birds, p. & t. 

 145. Selby, Illust. pi. 52. fig. 5, 6. 8vo. p. 242. — Emberiza pas- 

 serina, Lath. Ind. Orn. iii. sp. 14. [young].) 



Sp. Charact. — Black, varied with rufous and grey; head, chin, 

 and throat black ; a white ring round the head from the base of 

 the bill ; the breast and belly white. — Female, with the head ti\- 

 fous-brown streaked with dusky ; no white ring. 



This bird, so common in the north of Europe-, as I learn 

 from Mr. Audubon, has been recently killed in the vicinity 

 of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. According to Pennant it ia 

 found as far north as Denmark, but- is rare in Sweden. It 

 is likewise common in the south of Russia and Siberia. 



The, Reed Sparrow in the north of England, where most 

 common, seems to have a predilection for wet and marshy 

 tracts near streams^ and frequents willows and low bushes 

 on which it often perches, conspicuous and familiar, while 

 engaged in delivering its monotonous ditty, which consists 

 merely of two not^s, the first three or four times repeated, 

 and the last single and more sharp. This very humble lay 

 is sometimes continued from the same spray, for a consid- 

 erable time, while the female is engaged in the cares of in- 

 cubation. Nesting and dwelling often in the vicinity of the 

 melodious and retiring Sedge-Bird, it has inadvertently ac- 

 quired undeserved credit as a songster to which it was nat 

 entitled. 



The nest is commonly placed on the ground near water ; 

 sometimes in a bush some distance from the ground ; at othe^ 

 times in high grass, reeds, sedge, or even ainong the furze 



