THE BUNTINGS. 407 
They live in flocks in the interior of Africa, where they feed on the 
cereals and the young of weaker birds. They chirp, but have no 
song ; and they owe their name to the inimitable art which they dis- 
play in constructing their nests. These vary in form according to 
the species, and are composed of grass, rushes, and straw, suspended 
from the branches of a tree, the entrance being below. Sometimes 
they are spiral-shaped, occasionally round ; in fact, they are of every 
imaginable outline. Mr. Swainson describes the nest of a species 
built on a branch projecting over a river, shaped like a chemist’s 
retort suspended from the head, while the shank was eight or ten 
inches long, at the bottom of which was the entrance, all but touching 
the water. 
Another species construct their nests in a clump under one roof 
or cover, each nest having a separate entrance on the under side, but 
not communicating with that next it. Again, a variety is said each 
year to attach a new nest to that of the previous year, and nothing is 
more picturesque than these groups of nests thus suspended to the 
branches of a tree. 
But the most curious of birds, in respect to nidification, are the 
Sociable Weaver Birds (Loxza socia). These establish themselves, to 
the number of 500 or 600, upon the same tree, constructing their 
nests under a common roof, the one backing against the other, like 
the cells of a bee-hive, all living together in the happiest manner. 
The Buntings (Zmberizide) are intimately associated with the 
Passerine Birds. ‘They are characterised by a short, stout, conical 
bill, the upper mandible narrower than the lower, its dorsal outline 
nearly straight, sides convex, edges inflected, the tip acute ; the lower 
mandible has the angle short, broad, and rounded. In the palate is 
a hard bony knob, to bruise the seed which forms their principal 
food. Their general habitat is the fields and hedges upon the margin 
of woods ; some few species haunt the banks of rivers. They build 
their nests on the ground, or on low bushes, and lay four or five eggs. 
The young, when hatched, are blue. Their plumage is deficient in 
brilliancy, but their song is not without attractions. In autumn, 
when they leave the colder regions to go south, fattened with the 
rich produce of the harvest-fields, they have a rich, delicate flavour, 
and are then eagerly sought after for the table in France, and 
frequently brought to market along with larks, 
The Common Bunting (Zmberiza miliaria, Fig. 215) is best known. 
In winter it assembles in large flocks, and is shot in immense numbers 
for human food. It is destitute of song, and generally roosts on 
bushes. 
