E M B E R I Z A. 



417 



that of the warbler. The eggs of the bunting are 

 greyish white, and not quite so numerous ; they have 

 a tinge of pale pink in them, and arc lined and 

 spotted with chocolate red, like the eggs of the other 

 buntings ; and those of the warbler are pale brown, 

 mottled with darker, and without lines. The reed 

 bunting is as destitute of any thing that can be called 

 song as the rest of the bunting genus ; and the sound 

 which it utters, such as it is, is delivered in daylight, 

 and while the bird is perching in sight of the observer. 

 The reed warbler on the other hand has a sweet 

 though subdued note, and it sings, in " shadiest 

 covert hid," only at early morn, or in the evening 

 twilight, and sometimes the live-long night. 



The appearance of this species may be thus de- 

 scribed : length, about five inches and three quarters, 

 of which the tail occupies two and a half; the beak, 

 four lines in length, is black on the upper part, and 

 whitish on the under ; the iris is dark brown, the 

 legs rather better than nine lines high, are dark 

 flesh-coloured. The head is black, with reddish spots ; 

 a reddish white line extends from the base of the 

 lower mandible quite round the head ; it is widest at the 

 cheeks, and narrowest at the upper part of the neck ; 

 this part is ash-coloured ; the back is black, spotted 

 with white and red, the rump alternately grey and 

 reddish yellow ; the throat is black spotted; the rest 

 of the under part of the body is dusky white, with 

 some brown spots scattered over the breast and sides ; 

 the small wing-coverts are red, the large black with 

 red edges, in some they are whitish ; the pen leathers are 

 dark brown, bordered with pale red ; the tail is forked, 

 arid of a dusky colour ; the two outer feathers have a 

 large wedge-shaped white spot, and the two middle 

 ones yellowish brown borders. The feathers on the 

 head of the male never turn to so good a black after 

 moulting, when in the house, as in the wild state, but are 

 always browner and clouded with reddish white. The 

 head of the female is of a rusty brown, spotted with 

 black ; her brown cheeks are encircled with a reddish 

 white streak, which, passing above the eyes, unites 

 with another, which commences at the base of the 

 beak ; a dark streak passes down the sides of the 

 throat, which, with the under part of the body, is red- 

 dish white, much streaked on the breast with light 

 brown ; the colour of the back is lighter, but not so 

 clear as that of the male. 



It is probable that buntings, and indeed all _ birds 

 that feed upon the farinaceous portions of seeds, in the 

 healthy state, are chiefly guided to their food by sight. 

 There is but very little scent in those seeds on which 

 buntings feed, and we do not know much about the 

 sense of smell in birds ; most birds appear to us to 

 have the sense of smell very imperfect, and in those 

 which have it very acute, as rooks, carrion crows, 

 mairpies, and especially vultures, it is so much more 

 exquisite than any thing of which we have experience 

 in ourselves, that we can say little or nothing about 

 it. The vcg.'iable seed gives no signs of its presence 

 by motion, either in producing sound, or in any other 

 way ; and, therefore, sight is the sense that they must 

 depend upon chiefly. With birds that are insectivo- 

 rous it is different, for most insects and their larva? smell, 

 and some of them smell very strong : and many of 

 those caterpillars which are quiescent during the day, 

 concealed or sticking out from the branches like little 

 abortive or unproductive twigs, are in active motion 

 during the night. Thus the hours of activity in the 

 two orders of birds vary considerably ; and though, 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



as all of them eat insects, and most of them vegetable 

 matter occasionally, they meet on the confines in a 

 sort of average of the two habits, yet, in the more 

 marked genera of the orders, the times of feeding are 

 almost reversed. In the* clear light, during the dry 

 weather, when the seeds are ripening- apace, the 

 buntings are all bustle, activity, and clatter, and the 

 warblers are songless in the "shade. On the other 

 hand, when night sets in, or when the weather con- 

 tinues wet, and the sky cloudy, the buntings chirp 

 dolefully about the hedges ; but the groves and thick- 

 ets are full of joy and song. The skylark is some- 

 thing intermediate, and is fondest of that weather 

 which first inspired him with song, showering and 

 shining alternately. The reed-buntings are very ener- 

 getic in the air, and active in many of their motions, 

 especially those of the tail, which are even more rapid 

 than in the wagtails. The tail is forked at the ex- 

 tremity, and considerably produced and spread. The 

 habit which the bird has of clinging to the flexible 

 culms of the aquatic plants, with free use of its bill, 

 so that it may bruise the husks and pick out the seeds, 

 renders the powerful and ready motion of the tail as 

 a means of balancing, absolutely necessary. The 

 security and even the grace with which it rides, when 

 the stems are laid almost level with the water, now 

 on one side and then on another, are well worthy of 

 notice. It adheres not only as if it were part of the 

 plant, but it contrives to maintain nearly the same 

 horizontal position, with its head to the wind. In 

 action it is the most interesting bird that inhabits the 

 same locality, though not so in song. When the 

 autumnal winds and those of early winter have shaken 

 off the seeds, and the reeds themselves have been, 

 borne down by the floods, the reed bunting resorts to 

 other pastures, associating with the yellow bunting- 

 and the other graminivorous birds ; and in company 

 with them approaching houses and farm-yards, when 

 the weather is severe. With few exceptions, indeed, 

 the resident little birds seek the abodes of man in 

 the winter, and as instinctively come to pick up the 

 crumbs and grains which otherwise would be lost near 

 his habitation, as they resort to other places, and 

 destroy insects and weeds in aid of his cultivation, 

 during the summer. In autumn they enter the area 

 or decoy with the chaffinch ; in spring, when there is 

 snow, they approach the barns and dunghills, and 

 there, as well as in the open fields, and on the 

 hedges, they are very easily taken with birdlime or 

 a net. 



THE SPARROW BUNTING (E. potterino). This 

 species must have been confounded by naturalists 

 with the preceding, or it would have certainly been 

 better known, as it is not rare either in spring or 

 autumn. It is a more slender and smaller bird than 

 the former, being only five inches long, of which the 

 tail measures two and a quarter ; the bill is li^ht 

 brown below and black above ; the iris is of a dark 

 chestnut colour ; the feet are three-quarters of an inch 

 in height and dusky flesh-coloured ; but the plumage 

 in general is simitar to that of the female of the pie- 

 ceding species. The male bird has the top of the 

 head red, with a grey longitudinal streak in the mid- 

 dle, and many black spots arising from the deeper 

 shade of the feathers, which appears in every direc- 

 tion : a dusky reddish white line passes from the 

 nostrils above, and also a little under the eyes, and 

 widening behind on the temples, chestnut-brown 

 breaks through a deep black, which reaches the sides 

 DD 



