BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 185 



EMBERIZA SCHCENICLUS, Linn^us. 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



This most striking looking bird, which is resident with 

 us throughout the year, is confined ahnost entirely, during 

 the summer months, to low marshy districts, where it 

 nests in similar localities to the sedge-warbler; but in 

 winter, and especially during severe weather, it is more 

 generally dispersed, frequenting stack-yards and farm 

 premises in company with its kindred species. Mr. Samuel 

 Blyth, a very accurate local observer, also tells me that 

 he has known a pair or two frequent a large patch of 

 furze, in the centre of a plantation at Framingham, 

 throughout the winter months, although this locahty 

 is at a considerable distance from any piece of water. 

 Like the reed and sedge-warblers, however, the broads 

 in this county must be looked upon as the chief home of 

 this species, where they may be met with at all seasons 

 uttering their somewhat harsh and unvaried notes from 

 the tops of the bushes, or whilst clinging to the reed 

 stems ; and in these localities the nests are built on 

 the ground, frequently at the foot of a small bush, 

 placed in a hollow amongst the soft moss that forms the 

 foundation. Mr. Hewitson, moreover, (Eggs Brit. Birds, 

 3rd ed.) after describing the usual position of the 

 nests, says, — " I have, though rarely, found them at an 

 elevation of two feet or more above the water, and sup- 

 ported by a bunch of the common reed, not fixed hke 

 the nest of the reed- warbler, attached to the perpendicular 

 stems, but supported upon a bunch of them which had 

 been prostrated by the wind." The upper part of the 

 structure is formed of fine bents, hned with the feathery 

 tops of the reed, the whole so carefully concealed amongst 

 the long grasses, that it is difficult to find until the bird 

 2b 



