174 THE BUNTINGS 



It is in the decay of the year, when the plumage, even of the male 

 reed-bunting, is of a uniform dull hue, much resembling the brown 

 reeds he lives amongst, that such fancies occur to one. In spring he 

 acquires a fine black-velvet cap and a white, somewhat stick-up 

 collar, which set him more off from his background, and with these 

 he grows less impersonal. He begins, now, to indulge in movements 

 less wind-blown and wandering than formerly, and his notes, though 

 they still have a reedy quality, become more distinctly a song. In 

 this he has been severely criticised, yet his performance is certainly 

 a remarkable one, as may be gathered from the following descrip- 

 tion by Naumann : ' His loud, peculiar ditty is delivered in a 

 stammering manner, as though he found considerable difficulty in 

 bringing forth the various notes of which it is composed one might 

 almost say that they were vomited out of him. Sometimes these 

 notes sound like " zja, tit, tai, zissziss, tai, zier, zissziss," but they vary 

 considerably in different individuals. 1 



It has been said that the male reed-bunting is deficient in 

 courting display, but he has certain forms when he requires them, 

 and he does not require more. The expansion of the tail shows the 

 white feathers in it, being also a well-looking action in itself, whilst 

 no special posture is needed to set off points so conspicuous as the 

 contrasted black and white of the head and neck. As nothing here 

 can well be missed, nothing need be pointed out, yet the bird will 

 erect the feathers of the crown, thus drawing special attention to, 

 and, at the same time, improving his principal ornament. 2 Thus we 

 have the courting actions, but to see the actual courtship of a bird 

 so retiring in its nature, and having so much covert into which it 

 may, at liberty, retire, may well be a difficult matter. 



The corn-bunting has also suffered disparagement as a wooer 

 indeed, it has even been asserted that he has no courting actions 

 at all. If so, the fact is of interest, for Miliaria is plain enough 



1 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, vol. iii. p. 215. The notes anglicised run Tsya, 

 teet, taee, tsiziz, taee, tseer, etc. 



2 Jenner Weir, as referred to by Darwin in Descent of Man. 



