REED-BUNTING. 135 
EMBERIZA SCHANICLUS. 
REED-BUNTING. 
(Pxate 15.) 
Emberiza hortulanus arundinaceus, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 274 (1760). 
Emberiza schceniclus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i.p. 311 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum 
—Gmelin, Latham, (Kaup), Temminck, (Degland § Gerbe), Naumann, Dresser, 
Newton, &e. 
Emberiza arundinacea, S. G. Gmelin, Reise Russl. ii. p. 175 (1774). 
Cynchramus scheeniclus (Linn.), Bote, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 
Scheenicola arundinacea (Briss.), Bonap. Rev. Crit. p. 164 (1850). 
The Reed-Bunting is one of the most widely distributed of the British 
Buntings and breeds more or less commonly in all marshy districts 
throughout England and Wales. It is also as common and widely dispersed 
in Scotland, both on the mainland and on most of the adjacent islands, 
extending to the Outer Hebrides. It becomes rarer in Orkney, where it 
is occasionally known to breed; and to the Shetlands it is merely a 
straggler, three examples only being recorded by Dr. Saxby—a female and 
two males. In Ireland it is also very common and distributed over the 
whole island, where it is a resident. 
The Reed-Bunting in one of its three or more forms is found throughout 
the Palearctic Region, with the exception of Palestine and the tundras of 
the north beyond the limit of forest-growth. It is generally a resident, 
but in the northernmost portions of its range is only a summer visitor, 
and further south it is probable that many migrate south on the approach 
of winter, whilst in North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor, Turkestan, China, 
and the central and southern islands of Japan it is only a winter visitor. 
In such a large range it is not to be wondered at that the Reed-Bunting is 
subject to considerable local variation, especially in the size of the bill. 
The smallest form, EL. scheniclus, var. passerina, breeds in Eastern Siberia 
and winters in China. The typical form is found throughout Europe and 
West Siberia, both varieties occurring in the valley of the Yenesay. A 
form which is called KH. scheniclus, var. palustris, is found in Japan, Italy, 
and Spain; whilst the largest and palest form, E. scheniclus, var. pyrrhu- 
loides, having a bill so large that Finsch has placed it in a different genus, 
is a resident in the upper valley of the Irtish in South Siberia, in Turkes- 
tan, and the deltas of the Volga and the Danube. The selection of four 
forms to be honoured with a name is purely arbitrary. Although the 
extreme forms appear to be almost generically distinct, they are connected 
