The Corn-Bunting hi 



Tlie Corn-Bunting, in spite of its clums}^ aspect, is very strung on tlie wing, 

 and may be recognized from the fact that its legs hang down as it pursues its 

 undulating flight ; it also frequently sings as it goes. It is very fond of dusting 

 itself in the road after the manner of a Sparrow or Skylark. 



The nest is either placed in a depression in the ground, in a tuft of grass, 

 ragged-robin, or other low-growing herbage ; in brambles, or freshly-sprouting 

 hawthorn on ground recently cleared ; also in fields of growing corn, peas, or 

 clover : it is large, deep, cup-shaped, and roughly constructed of mingled coarse 

 and fine grass, occasionally (though rarel}-) watli a fragment or two of moss, and 

 sometimes a few roots ; the bulk of the nest really oonsisting of a thick inner 

 lining of fine grass and black horsehair. The eggs number from four to six, five 

 being usual ; the}- frequently resemble abnormally large eggs of the Yellow 

 Bunting ; as a rule they are pale pinky-lilac, but sometimes creamy- white ; the 

 markings are blackish-purple or deep pitchy-brown, with greyish-lavender shell- 

 markings ; they vary considerably in character, either consisting of finely and 

 densel}- scribbled lines, of boldly scrawled streaks, of combined streaks and blots, 

 of broad irregular smears and paler blurred spots, or of partly couiluent blots, 

 sometimes forming a zone near the larger extremit_y of the egg. 



The time of nidification is from about the last week of Ma}^ to the first week 

 of July, one brood only being reared in a season ; the hen is a close sitter, and 

 rarely leaves her nest until one has almost put foot or hand upon her ; so that 

 apart from the size of the eggs, there is seldom any difficulty in identifying them. 



During the breeding-season the food of this bird consists very largely of 

 insects and their larvae ; but it has been said to eat both peas and beans, and it 

 is certain that it devours cjuantities of unripe corn : in autumn and winter the 

 Corn-Bunting lives almost exclusively upon grain and various kinds of seeds, in 

 search of which it frequents rick-yards, stubble-fields, and pastures. 



Although this species is tolerably common in Kent, I do not think I took its 

 nest more than half a dozen times during the seventeen successive years in which 

 I was an enthusiastic birds'-nester ; but as I had a strong objection to trampling 

 down crops on the bare chance of discovering a nest, it is probable that I may 

 frequently have passed within a few yards of a nest of the Corn- Bunting without 

 being aware of the fact. 



This is not a suitable bird for the Aviculturist, being uupleasing in appearance 

 and voice, as well as voracious ; it is, therefore, rarely caged. It is, however, 

 possible that we underrate the vocal powers of this bird, for in the "Zoologist" for 

 1887, P- 300, the late Rev. H. A. Macpherson proves that it has some capacity for 

 mimicking the notes of other species; he says: — "When birds'-uesting on the Upper 



