120 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



side by a broad blackish streak ; the breast is streaked with brown ; otherwise 

 she is similar to the male, though slightly smaller. The young bird is very like 

 the female. 



During the summer the Reed-Bunting is essentially a marsh-loving bird, 

 frequenting all moist spots in the neighbourhood of rivers, broads, canals, 

 drains, or streams, wherever rushes, reeds, and the wiry grasses which delight in 

 damp soil abound ; in such spots its nest is almost sure to be found by careful 

 searching. 



At this season the Black-bonnet is always paired, but as autumn approaches 

 it wanders over the country in small flocks, often associating with Corn Buntings, 

 Larks, Pipits, or Wagtails, and wandering through stubbles and rick-yards in 

 search of scattered grain, or waste corners where weeds abound, the ripened seeds 

 of which afford them food. 



But the summer time affords the most satisfactory opportunities for watching 

 the habits of the Reed Bunting, and Norfolk is one of the best counties in which 

 to study it. As Stevenson observes : " the broads in this county must be looked 

 upon as the chief home of this species, where they (sic) may be met with at all 

 seasons uttering their somewhat harsh and unvaried notes from the tops of the 

 bushes, or whilst clinging to the reed stems ; and in these localities the nests are 

 built on the ground, frequently at the foot of a small bush, placed in a hollow 

 amongst the soft moss that forms the foundation." 



It was around these broads that I first met with the Reed Bunting in any 

 numbers ; I had seen individual examples from time to time not far from Canter- 

 bury, but I never obtained the nest until 1885, when I first met with it on 

 Hickling Marsh on the i3th May, and Mr. Salter sent me a second taken at 

 Dounton, in Salisbury, on the 2ist May. Curiously enough, although I had never 

 come across it during many years in which I had birds-nested in Kent, the month 

 after I had secured these two nests, my friend, Mr. William Drake, forwarded a 

 third to me which he had found on the saltings at Kemsley, near Sheppy. When 

 at the broads, in June, 1886, I dropped upon a nest (on the and of the month) 

 at Mudfleet, containing five entirely unmarked eggs, but these were so much 

 incubated and so brittle that, with the greatest care, I was only able to save 

 two of them. (See fig. iqS.J 



All my nests were in slight depressions in mossy ground, sodden with wet 

 and not always safe to walk upon, even with bare feet and trousers rolled up 

 above the knees ; indeed I and my companion Mr. O. Janson had to walk very 

 circumspectly, part of the marsh here and there being detached and simply 

 floating in a pool of deep water, so that as you put a foot down it would dip 



