AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 173 



as a rule, I think the first week of April is about 

 the usual time for these birds to commence sitting. 

 In the autumn the Reed-Bunting, to a certain extent, 

 forsakes its summer haunts, and may be met with in 

 the hedgerows in company with Sparrows and Finches, 

 gleaning from the stubbles, and sometimes frequenting 

 our rick-yards, though a few are still to be found at 

 the reed-beds by the river-side. The principal food 

 of this Bunting consists of various seeds, but, in 

 common with most hard-billed birds, it varies its 

 diet in the summer with grubs and caterpillars. 

 I believe that this species usually rears two, and 

 sometimes three, broods in a season. I have found 

 young birds, only just able to fly, at the end of 

 August. Though, as I have said, this bird is well 

 known in our neighbourhood as Reed-Sparrow, and 

 the Yellow Bunting as Yellow Hammer, the eggs of 

 both species are almost always called " Writing 

 Lark's " by the birds'-nesting boys of the district, 

 and on one occasion of my meeting a lad with a 

 freshly taken nest of eggs of the Reed-Bunting, and 

 asking him to what bird they belonged, he replied, 

 " Why, Writing Lark, to be sure," and on my pro- 

 ceeding to ask for a description of this Writing Lark, 

 the ingenious youth gave me a pretty accurate account 

 of the Kingfisher ! 



I have found the present species common in most 

 parts of Europe that I have visited. Some confusion 

 has been caused by this bird having been occasionally 

 called Black-headed Bunting, a name belonging more 

 properly to Euspiza melanocephala, a species from 

 South-eastern Europe, which has hitherto only been 

 once recorded as having occurred in England. 



