190 THE BUNTINGS 



in a performance of this nature than the female, is an interesting fact, 

 and one which has escaped the notice of other observers. Coward 

 and Oldham, for instance, in their Birds of Cheshire, say that : " Like 

 many birds that build upon the ground, the female reed-bunting, 

 when disturbed, will frequently endeavour to lure an intruder from 

 the vicinity of the nest, by tumbling along the ground, for several 

 yards, with trailing wings." Arundel, too, apparently, mistook the 

 matter, for he says : " Both male and female more particularly 

 the latter are adepts at shamming wounded, to draw attention from 

 the nest"; 1 whilst Bruce has only recorded an instance of the more 

 exceptional kind. "The female," he tells us, when he had almost 

 trodden on a nest, " tried all kinds of alluring antics, pretending to 

 have broken wing and leg, as this species so often will, when disturbed 

 at the nest." 2 Stevenson, in his Birds of Norfolk, does not go into the 

 question of sex, but says, generally, that the bird, when its nest is 

 approached, rises from the spot, "when most frequently it will be 

 found to flutter away as if wounded, with one wing trailing on the 

 ground." These actions, however, do not seem to have much struck 

 Naumann, since, though well acquainted with the bird, he barely 

 alludes to them. One might suppose, indeed, that he saw in them 

 nothing more specialised than the "anxious gestures" of the corn- 

 bunting, to which he alludes in much the same terms. 3 



Yet the actions of the latter species, under similar circumstances, 

 do not at all closely resemble those which have been described, since 

 they are neither adapted, nor do they seem intended to lead one 

 away from the nest or young, but have rather a contrary effect. They 

 are, moreover, conducted in the air, though, as has been seen in the 

 case of the crossbill, this is a difference which is not of the essence 

 of what we are considering. The next genuine instance of these 

 interesting activities for interesting they appear to me to be, in a 

 high degree is unfortunately never to be seen in these islands, 

 though the bird by whom they are practised may sometimes be. If the 



1 Ackworth Birds. 2 The Birds about St. Andrews. 



3 Naturgeschichte der Vogel Mitteleuropas, vol. iii. 



