202 THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



shrill and piercing as to be offensive. The female has only 

 a simple plaintive note. 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING (Emberiza Scliceniclus). 

 Sometimes called the Keed or Ring Bunting, the Eeed or 

 Water Sparrow, the Ring Bird, Chink, or Black Bonnet. 

 This species is about six inches and a quarter long, it is there- 

 fore smaller than either of the Buntings already described ; 

 it is also more slender in its make; it has a glossy black head 

 and throat, which, contrasting with the white neck, breast, 

 and belly, makes it a very conspicuous object; the back is 

 bright chestnut, marked with brownish black. Marshy 

 places, the sides of lakes and large ponds, the banks of 

 rivers and canals, rush-grown water meadows, and osier 

 beds, are the favourite haunts of this bird, and in all the 

 southern counties of England where such are to be found, 

 would a search for the Reed Bunting be successful ; it is 

 common in Wales, is included by Thompson in his Birds of 

 Ireland, and extends northward to Scotland ; it does not 

 appear to visit Orkney or Shetland, but has been observed 

 in the Hebrides, and on the margins of all the lochs and the 

 swampy district of Sutherlandshire. We read of the bird 

 as inhabiting Russia and Italy, and being a summer visitant 

 in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but of all the conti- 

 nental countries, it is found most plentifully in Holland t 



