THE BUNTINGS. 497 



They live in flocks in the interior of Africa, where they feed on the 

 cereals and the young of weaker birds. They chirp, but have no 

 song ; and they owe their name to the inimitable art which they dis- 

 play in constructing their nests. These vary in form according to 

 the species, and are composed of grass, rushes, and straw, suspended 

 from the branches of a tree, the entrance being below. Sometimes 

 they are spiral-shaped, occasionally round ; in fact, they are of every 

 imaginable outline. Mr. Swainson describes the nest of a species 

 built on a branch projecting over a river, shaped like a chemist's 

 retort suspended from the head, while the shank was eight or ten 

 inches long, at the bottom of which was the entrance, all but touching 

 the water. 



Another species construct their nests in a clump under one roof 

 or cover, each nest having a separate entrance on the under side, but 

 not communicating with -that next it. Again, a variety is said each 

 year to attach a new nest to that of the previous year, and nothing is 

 more picturesque than these groups of nests thus suspended to the 

 branches of a tree. 



But the most curious of birds, in respect to nidification, are the 

 Sociable Weaver Birds (Loxia soda). These establish themselves, to 

 the number of 500 or 600, upon the same tree, constructing their 

 nests under a common roof, the one backing against the other, like 

 the cells of a bee-hive, all living together in the happiest manner. 



The Buntings (Emberizidce) are intimately associated with the 

 Passerine Birds. They are characterised by a short, stout, conical 

 bill, the upper mandible narrower than the lower, its dorsal outline 

 nearly straight, sides convex, edges inflected, the tip acute ; the lower 

 mandible has the angle short, broad, and rounded. In the palate is 

 a hard bony knob, to bruise the seed which forms their principal 

 food. Their general habitat is the fields and hedges upon the margin 

 of woods ; some few species haunt the banks of rivers. They build 

 their nests on the ground, or on low bushes, and lay four or five eggs. 

 The young, when hatched, are blue. Their plumage is deficient in 

 brilliancy, but their song is not without attractions. In autumn, 

 when they leave the colder regions to go south, fattened with the 

 rich produce of the harvest-fields, they have a rich, delicate flavour, 

 and are then eagerly sought after for the table in France, and 

 frequently brought to market along with larks. 



The Common Bunting (Emberiza miliaria, Fig. 215) is best known. 

 In-winter it assembles in large flocks, and is shot in immense numbers 

 for human food. It is destitute of song, and generally roosts on 

 bushes. 



