1582 THE PERCHING BIRDS 



molt, all the feathers have light edges. Males of the year closely resemble adult 



females, but differ from them in having no black centres to the feathers on the nape. 



The genus Emberiza includes the typical buntings, all of which are 



crestless, and have forked tails; the bill being hard, short, and conical: 

 Buntings 



the first primary small, and the fourth or fifth commonly the longest 



in the wing, and considerably longer than the next; while the metatarsus is covered 

 with scales in front and on the sides, with an entire plate forming a sharp ridge 

 behind. These buntings are represented by numerous species from the temperate 

 and northern parts of the Old World, as well as from North Africa and India. 



The feed bunting or reed sparrow {Emberiza schceniclus) is found on 

 ing swampy ground over almost the whole of continental Europe from the 

 South of Spain to Cape North. Among the aits and osier beds of the Thames 

 and its tributaries, it forms a conspicuous object in the summer time, as it chants 

 its sweet snatches of song from some prominent position by the waterside. The 

 female builds her nest among rushes or long grass on the side of a bank, or in a 

 dense tussock of the morass which forms her home, not unfrequently amidst a tiny 

 forest of cotton grass, whose white tufts of delicate down transform a few acres of 

 black bog into a miniature paradise of beauty. The eggs are drab in ground color, 

 and streaked with black and dark purple. The young of this bunting, like those 

 of certain other species which nest upon the ground, frequently leave their nest 

 before they can fly, trusting to their protective colors to secure their safety. Resi- 

 dent in some districts, this bunting in others is a partial migrant, a considerable 

 number passing the winter in the British Isles, where they occasionally seek shelter 

 in the centre of large woods at a distance from their usual aquatic haunts. Their 

 food consists of seeds of water plants, small mollusks, and insects; but occasionally 

 they feed in the stubble fields. The bird is gregarious, and fond of associating in 

 small and even large flocks during the winter and spring months. We have but 

 rarely come across white individuals of this species, nor have we yet examined a 

 pied specimen. The general color of the adult male in the breeding season is ru- 

 fous, with broad black centres to the feathers of the back; the wing coverts are 

 chestnut; the primaries blackish, edged with rufous; the tail feathers dark brown, 

 the two outer ones being edged with white; the crown of the head as well as the 

 sides of the face and ear coverts are entirely black, and separated from the back 

 by a broad band of white, which forms a collar joining the white sides of the head; 

 the throat is black, and the remainder of the under surface white, streaked with 

 black on the sides of the body. 



Among the Arctic birds from time to time straying into Western 

 ng Europe during their seasonal migrations, must be mentioned the little 

 bunting (E. piisilla). Near Archangel Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown found it 

 very common in the summer, although local in its choice of nesting grounds. They 

 often heard its low, sweet song, which is compared rather to that of a warbler than 

 of a bunting, and they observed that it frequented the pine woods and mixed 

 timber. Mr. Seebohm supplies the following account of his finding the eggs of this 

 bunting in the valley of the Yenisei. There " it was extremely abundant, and its 

 unobtrusive and quiet song was constantly heard before the snow, which was lying 



