CHAPTER XLV 



THE REED-BUNTING 



The blackcap, as he is called in the broads, is a marsh 

 bird, loving marshes near running water, more especially in 

 summer-time, for in winter but few blackcaps remain by the 

 reeds and water, but draw up on the land and to the ricks, 

 where they steal grain, in company with sparrows, green- 

 finches, yellow-hammers, and chaffinches ; and for joining 

 the company of pilferers, these birds often fall victims to the 

 bird-catcher's net. His appetite in winter is voracious, and 

 as he is tender, soon dying in hard seasons, there must be 

 a great mortality in Arctic weather, when the broads and 

 dikes are laid, and the marshes white fields of snow. Those 

 that remain then — for many go away in winter — often fall 

 victims to the bird-catcher or climate. But in the spring, 

 when the insects come into life, they return to the marshes, 

 and the cocks can be seen popping in and out of reed-beds 

 and clumps of sallow and bramble, their black heads telling 

 strongly against the azure ; but at all seasons they keep in 

 pairs or wander singly, never flocking, though they may join 

 other flocks of birds in the winter season. 



Towards the end of April, when the waterways are ablaze 

 with kingcups, they choose their nesting-places, preferring 

 a wet-marsh or rond, where either grasses, rush, chate, 

 or water-grasses grow luxuriantly, places dear to the rail 

 and reed-pheasant, though these birds do build in the drier 

 inside marshes and on the walls or in broken-down reed 

 stuff. 



At this season you may see the gay cock and sober- 



