48 THE BIRDS OF DEVONSHIRE. 



an elm, or the top of some hedgerow tree ; 

 occasionally from a bare telegraph wire. It is 

 continued throughout August and September, and 

 may exceptionally be heard in winter ; Mr. Gatcombe 

 records that, on the 5th of December, 1873, he 

 noticed a male Cirl Bunting singing as vigorously 

 as in the spring of the year. He also remarked 

 that Cirl Buntings assembled with other small birds 

 to gather insects from heaps of decaying sea-weed 

 in the fields. In confinement, as in a state of liberty, 

 I have found the Cirl Bunting to be a shy, retiring 

 species ; but Montagu, whose classical description 

 of this species will be found in the Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society, (VII. pp. 276-280), states that 

 a young male, which he reared by hand, " was 

 always sufficiently tame to take insects from the 

 hand, shewing a great partiality to such a repast, 

 and when let out of the cage would catch flies in 

 the windows." Another hand-reared Cirl Bunting, 

 also a male bird, is recorded by Mr. Fox of Kings- 

 bridge, to have paired with a female Canary, and to* 

 have produced a hybrid, which " possessed the 

 habit of crushing hempseed with its hard bony 

 palate, instead of shelling it with the edges of the 

 bill, as in the Finch tribe." (Zool. 1818. p. 2020). 



REED BVNTmG—Emberiza srhanidus, Linn. 



A RESIDENT, fairly numerous in wet situations on 

 the lower grounds, but seldom seen on Dartmoor or 

 Exmoor ; in April, 1888, I met with a flock of 



