159 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



REED BUNTING. WATER SPARROW. CHINK. BLACK BONNET. 

 PASSERINE BUNTING. MOUNTAIN SPARROW. 



PLATE LXXVII. 



Embcriza schcenidus, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



passerina, LATHAM. 



" schceniculus, GOULD. 



arundinacea, G-MELIN. LATHAM. 



Passer arundinaeeus, RAY. 



THE nest is commonly placed on the ground, among coarse grass, 

 weeds, sedge, or rushes, on a bank near the edge of the water which 

 the bird frequents, and occasionally in the lower part of some low bush 

 or stump, a few inches above the ground; sometimes it is said to have 

 been met with in a furze or gorse bush, at a considerable distance from 

 water; and Mr. Hewitson relates that he has, though rarely, found it 

 at an elevation of two feet or more above the water, and supported on 

 a mass of fallen reeds. J. Barstow, Esq., of Garrow Hill, near York, 

 has informed me of one he found near there on the 7th. of July, 1852, 

 in a hedge about a yard from the ground, some way from any pond: 

 it contained four eggs. It is composed of grasses and fragments of 

 rushes, lined with the down of the reed, a little moss, or finer grass, 

 or hair. 



The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale purple brown, greenish, 

 or brownish, or purple white colour, streaked and strongly spotted in 

 a pleasing manner with a darker shade of the same; sometimes the 

 end is delicately marked with a texture of fine lines. They are laid 

 about the first week in May, and occasionally a second brood is produced 

 in July. They are somewhat oblong, and taper a little at each end. 



