THE BUNTINGS 189 



difference is so great that phraseology that can be rationally employed 

 for the one, seems, ipso facto, absurd for the other. However, let him 

 sing, if he must; yet the song is one-noted, and the one note not 

 musical. The call-note is a " zip, zip " and " basta ! " 



In my essay on the Finches I have mentioned two parental 

 ruses or stratagems, as they would generally be considered, practised 

 respectively by the brambling and crossbill, nor am I acquainted with 

 any others. The buntings would seem to be richer in such ex- 

 pedients, a fact, if it be so, which may have a relation to the greater 

 accessibility of their nests. 



Still the known, or, at least, the recorded instances do not 

 amount to many, even when to those of our common, or commoner, 

 kinds, some others are added belonging to species which, though they 

 but rarely visit us, yet, as they do so occasionally, may be considered, 

 in this connection, as British birds. A little deception or trick, which 

 I have myself observed in the cirl-bunting, is indeed of no use at 

 least I can see none in it yet, as it seems prompted by family 

 considerations, we may regard it as belonging to the above category. 

 On more than one occasion when I have gone up to the nest I was 

 watching, the bird always the female has almost immediately, it 

 would seem, upon flying out, doubled back and concealed herself 

 somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood, and there waited for my 

 departure. From the very short interval between my leaving the 

 nest and this stealthy return of the bird to it, I feel sure that she had 

 hidden in this way, though I never saw her do so. She must, I think, 

 have been, if not in the actual bush, at least very close to it, all the 

 while I was at the nest. 



The reed-bunting's actions, when the privacy of its family life is 

 intruded upon, are less equivocal. Thus Ussher and Warren remark 

 of this species that " birds that have young, especially the males, will 

 spread themselves out on the ground like pen-wipers, to divert 

 attention." That the male reed-bunting should be a greater adept 



1 Birds of Ireland. 

 2B 



