THE REED-BUNTING. 187 



Although the Eeed-Bunting is found in Berwickshire 

 throughout the year, yet it appears to be a partial migrant, 

 for fewer are seen in the county during winter than in 

 summer. It does not seem to have been observed on 

 migration at the Fame Islands or the Isle of May, with the 

 exception of a single specimen which was noticed at the 

 latter place on the 1st of March 1882, but there are records 

 of it having been seen on migration on the Lincolnshire 

 and Norfolk coasts in autumn.-^ It has been observed in 

 winter among the reeds by the side of the Tweed and 

 Whitadder near Paxton ; and my friend, Mr. Hardy, in his 

 notes on birds in the neighbourhood of Penmanshiel and 

 Oldcambus, states that it is occasionally found on the moors 

 of Coldingham and Eedheugh at that season ; also, that it 

 resorts to stacks of corn in the fields at Penmanshiel for 

 food during hard weather.^ He mentions Lumsden Moss 

 as a summer resort. 



A male and female were caught with bird-lime on some 

 whins near "Whiteburn by the gardener at Abbey St. 

 Bathans in February 1886. They had been feeding on 

 the ground from which a stack of corn had been removed. 

 The Eev. George Cook, of Longformacus, informs me that 

 this species is often seen about Whitchester. Mr. Lockie, 

 Spottiswoode, says that it is becoming scarcer every year 

 in the Earlston district. Before the extensive morass of 

 Billie Mire was drained, the great beds of reeds which 

 abounded there would form a favourite resort of this 

 bird ; and, even yet, it frequents the neighbourhood of the 

 site of the Mire, for Dr. Stuart records seeing several 

 Eeed-Buntings in February 1885 at Billie Brae, where, he 

 says, they nest. He likewise mentions that three were 



1 Reports on the Migration of Birds, 1879-86. 



2 I saw several Reed-Buntiugs haunting some stacks by the side of the public 

 road near Whiterigg in December 1887. 



