164 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
with a specimen in my collection; but I do not con- 
sider mine to be properly identified. The eggs vary 
occasionally in colouring. 
Rerep Buntine, Emberiza scheniclus. This bird 
is very common by all the brooks and rivers in 
the county. It is resident all the year, but rather 
changes its abode at times, as it flocks more with its 
own species, as well as with Yellowhammers and 
Chaffinches, in the autumn and winter, when it joins 
those birds in searching for food in the stubble- 
fields, returning to its old haunts in the spring and 
summer, when it disperses itself in pairs in search 
of nesting-places. 
The food of the Reed Bunting consists of all sorts 
of aquatic insects and small Crustacea, which it picks 
up amongst the reeds and rushes by the sides of 
streams and rivulets, as well as of corn and seeds of 
various sorts of grass and weeds. 
The nest is generally placed in a low thick 
bramble-bush, on or near the ground, or in the 
rough grass by the side of a bank, and occasionally 
in an old alder stump: it is made of bents, grass, 
roots and hair. 
In plumage the male is a very handsome bird, 
easily recognized in consequence of the black head, 
from which it takes one of its names, ‘‘ Blackheaded 
Bunting,’ and the bright white collar round the 
neck. The beak is dusky brown above and paler 
beneath; irides hazel; the whole of the head is 
