150 Midland Village: Railway and Woodland. 



Like the others he builds on or close to the 

 ground, in this case but a few yards from the 

 rails, and his wife, like theirs, lays eggs streaked 

 and lined in that curious way that is peculiar to 

 Buntings alone. I have not had personal experi- 

 ence of our rarer Buntings, the Ortolan, the Snow 

 Bunting, or even the Cirl Bunting, as living 

 birds ; but all the members of this curious race 

 seem to have the characteristics mentioned above 

 in a greater or less degree, and also a certain 

 hard knob in the upper mandible of the bill, 

 which is said to be used as a grindstone for the 

 grain and seeds which are the food of them all 

 in the adult state. 



Keeping yet awhile to the railway, let us 

 notice that even the station itself meets with 

 some patronage from the birds. In the stacks 

 of coal which are built up close to the siding, 

 the Pied Wagtails occasionally make their nests, 

 fitting them into some hospitable hole or crevice. 

 These, like all other nests found in or about the 

 station, are carefully protected by the employes 

 of the company. In a deep hole in the masonry 

 of the bridge which crosses the line a few yards 



