EMBERIZA SCH(ENICULUS. 38-3 



coverts, yellowish red ; hind part of the back, bright chestnut, 

 margined with yellow ; tail feathers, brownish black, the four 

 centre ones fringed with yellowish red ; legs and feet, yellowish 

 brown ; iris, light brown ; bill, short and slender ; tail, long. 

 The female has less yellow on the head and neck, and under 

 parts more streaked with orange. The young resemble the 

 female till the first moult. Length, seven inches by eleven in 

 extent of wings. When its nest is harried, no bird shows 

 greater signs of grief. It lingers about its rifled home for days, 

 but possibly its dolorous dirge-like note deepens the expression. 



The Reed Bunting. 



(Emberiza Schoeniculus. ) Linn. 



" Her looks were like a flower in May, 

 Her smile was like a summer morn ; 

 She tripped by the banks of Earn 

 As light's a bird upon a thorn.'" — Burns. 



This bird was called the coaly-hood in my young days, from 

 its black head or hood. It is common here, but chiefly on 

 marshes where there are reeds ; several bred on our links. 

 Their black heads and handsome shapes were oftener seen on 

 the top of whins near the Swilcan Burn than now, owing to the 

 removal of the whins for the ladies' golf course. It is more 

 slender than the yellow bunting, but its flight the same, rapid 

 and undulating. It also alights abruptly on its selected twig. 

 Its apology for a song is even more monotonous, and is only 

 heard in the breeding season, when perched in a listless attitude 

 on the top of a bush or whin. It might be called the whin- 

 bunting as well as the reed-bunting, at least here, for I used to 

 see it as often amongst whins as amongst reeds. Like the last, 

 it does not breed till the end of April. In winter it associates 

 with other graniverous birds. Its general food is seeds, insects, 

 and larvae ; usual breeding place amongst reeds, or in a tuft of 

 grass, but I have found it in the centre of a whin on the 

 ground on our links. When amongst reeds both birds and eggs 

 have been confounded with the sedge warbler's (Salicari 

 Phragmitis). The eggs, five ; greyish purple, spotted and 

 veined with dark red, like the chaffinch's, about the same size, 



