CIRL BUNTING 



151 



favourite resorts of the cirl bunting, and the male takes his stand to 

 sing on a tree-top, just as the yellowhammer does on a furze-bush or 

 hedge-top. His song comes nearest in character to that of the species 

 just named, being composed of several rapidly uttered, short notes, 

 somewhat reedy and tremulous in sound ; but the song is without the 

 long, thin note with which the more common species ends his slight 

 strain. In its nesting habits and in the colour of its eggs it is like 

 the yellowhammer, but its young are fed almost wholly on young 

 grasshoppers. 



In summer the cirl bunting lives chiefly on insects, but in 

 autumn and winter it is, like other finches, a seed-eater, and at this 

 season unites in small flocks, and occasionally associates with birds 

 of other species. 



Reed-Bunting. 

 Emberiza schoeniclus.. 



FIG. 53. BEED-BUNTING. ] natural size. 



Head, throat, and 

 gorget black (in winter 

 speckled with light 

 brown) ; nape, sides of 

 the neck, and a line 

 extending to the base 

 of the beak white ; 

 upper parts variegated 

 with reddish brown 

 and dusky ; under 

 parts white streaked 

 with dusky on the 

 flanks. Female: head 

 reddish brown with 

 dusky spots ; the white 

 on the neck less dis : 

 tinct ; under parts 

 reddish white, with 

 dusky spots. Length, 

 six inches. 



The reed-bunting, although by no means an uncommon bird, is 

 not nearly so common as either the corn-bunting or yellowhammer. 

 It is a bird of the waterside, and its spring and summer life is passed 



