188 BRITISH BIRDS. 
lay ; but his mate is far more shy, and when disturbed generally hides her- 
self as soon as possible. She is a very close sitter, and the nest is often 
almost trod upon ere she will quit her charge. When thus frightened off 
her eggs or callow young she will feign lameness, and fluttering with 
seeming broken wings and legs before the observer, try by this cunning 
artifice to lure him away. Sometimes the male will jom his mate in 
these alluring actions. The young birds are almost exclusively fed on 
insects. 
The Reed-Bunting is partly msectivorous and partly granivorous. In 
summer it chiefly eats insects and small freshwater shells, together with 
larvee of different kinds. It may often be seen in the air chasing passing 
flies, returning when the capture is effected to its favourite perch. In 
winter seeds of various kinds are eaten, such as those of grasses, but it 
will also feed on grain. 
It is only in summer that the proximity of water seems necessary to 
the Reed-Bunting. In winter it wanders far from its summer resorts 
and sociably joming other Finches frequently comes to the stackyards 
in severe weather to pick up what chance grains it can find. It may 
then be seen on the fields and hedges, and is sometimes flushed from 
weed-grown wastes in company with Larks and Corn-Buntings. In very 
severe weather they are often seen, as Mr. Cordeaux remarks, in company 
with Wagtails and Pipits near the sheep-folds. The bird, however, is not 
so gregarious as many of the true Finches, and the flocks are rarely large, 
and usually partly composed of other species. Mr. Gray remarks that 
there appears to be a large accession to the numbers of this bird in autumn 
in the north of Scotland. These migratory flocks, he says, mix with 
flocks of Corn-Buntings. F locks of these birds are also met with on our 
eastern coasts in September, sometimes in association with Chiffchaffs and 
Whitethroats, as recorded in the ‘ Migration Report’ for 1882. 
The male Reed-Bunting in summer has the head and throat deep black, 
a white collar passes round the back of the neck and joins the white on 
the breast, and another broad white stripe extends from the base of the 
lower mandible and joms the white collar. The general colour of the rest 
of the upper parts is bright chestnut, shading into bluish grey on the rump 
and upper tail-coverts, each feather with a brownish-black centre. The 
wings are blackish brown, margined with hght red; the two centre tail- 
feathers are similar in colour to the back, the rest are brownish black with 
narrow reddish margins, except the two outer webs of the two outermost 
feathers on each side, which are obliquely marked with white. The general 
colour of the underparts is white, striped with dull brown on the flanks 
and tinged with grey on the breast. Bill brownish. black above, paler 
below ; legs, toes, and claws brown; irides hazel. The female differs con- 
siderably from the male and has no black on the head and throat ; the head 
