THE REED BUNTING 203 



regains its song. Gregarious and social instincts 

 remain in abeyance during the breeding season, 

 which lasts from April to July, and each pair of 

 birds keep to themselves and to a particular haunt. 

 The nest for the first brood is commenced about the 

 middle of April in our southern counties, but not 

 until a month later in the northern ones. It is 

 built on or very near the ground. A favourite 

 situation is in the centre of a tuft of rushes, or 

 sheltered by a hassock of sedge ; less frequently a 

 site is chosen on the banks of the water, amongst 

 tall grass and other herbage. Nests have been 

 found on tufts of reeds several feet above the water ; 

 others several feet above the ground in spruce firs. 

 Externally the nest is made of dry grass, moss, 

 broken bits of reeds and flags, and dead leaves ; it 

 is lined with fine grass, hair, and the dry flowers of 

 reeds. Although loosely put together it is neatly 

 finished inside. The eggs are from four to six in 

 number. They vary from pale olive to pale buff in 

 ground-colour, often with a purplish tinge, boldly as 

 well as delicately spotted and streaked with dark 

 purplish-brown and grey. These pencillings are 

 not so intricate as, and are shorter and thicker 

 than, those on the eggs of the Yellow Bunting. 

 The hen-bird is a close sitter, and will sometimes 

 feign lameness when flushed from the nest — a trick 

 which the cock-bird occasionally joins in. The 

 latter often betrays the whereabouts of the nest by 

 sitting and singing close to it. 



