io8 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



a rule, a bird with food In its beak will sit quietly 

 until the watcher loses patience and moves away; 

 but on this occasion I had not been standing more 

 than ten seconds before the bunting flew down to 

 a small tuft of furze and was there greeted by 

 the shrill, welcoming cries of its young. I went 

 up softly to the spot, when out sprang the old 

 bird I had seen, but only to drop to the ground 

 just as the v/agtail had done, to beat the turf 

 with its wings, then to lie gasping for breath, then 

 to flutter on a little further, until at last it rose 

 up and flew to a bush. 



After admiring the reed-bunting's action, I 

 turned to the dwarf bush near my feet, and saw, 

 perched on a twig in its centre, a solitary young 

 bird, fully fledged but not yet capable of sus- 

 tained flight. He did not recognise an enemy in 

 me ; on the contrary, when I approached my hand 

 to him, he opened his yellow mouth wide, in ex- 

 pectation of being fed, although his throat was 

 crammed with caterpillars, and the white crescent- 

 shaped larva I had seen in the parent's bill was 

 still lying in his mouth unswallowed. The wonder 

 is that when a young bird had been stuffed with 

 food to such an extent just before sleeping time, 



