The Reed Bunting begins nesting operations towards the end of April 

 or early in May. The nest is usually built upon the ground, or almost on 

 it, among the rank vegetation, sometimes under a tuft of grass, or among 

 the stems of tall reeds, and it is artfully concealed by broken-down reeds 

 or overhanging grass. I have frequently found it in the lower branches of 

 tiny spruce firs, choked with weeds in a small plantation close to a sluggish 

 stream in the valley of the Forth ; but this is the only locality in which I 

 have seen the nest in a tree. It is sometimes built in the heaps of cut reeds, 

 which are collected for thatching or bedding and left against some hedge 

 in the meadows, but it is most frequently found on some bank close to water 

 among the stems of the rank herbage. The materials of which the nest is 

 formed depend greatly on the situation and character of the surroundings. 

 In the small spruce trees before mentioned, the nests were almost entirely 

 constructed of dry grass and lined with very fine grass and horsehair, while 

 those among the reeds and willows on the shore of the Lake of Monteith were 

 simply built of reeds, the dry dead leaves forming the nest and the fluffy 

 last year's flower being used as a lining. The nest is rather difficult to find 

 as it is so well concealed, and the bird often slips quietly away through the 

 reeds. If put up from the nest she flutters along the ground with wings and 

 tail outspread, tumbling along as if wounded, the male often joining her in 

 her attempts to lead off the intruder. 



The eggs laid vary in number from four to six. The ground colour 

 varies from greyish-green to pale violet-grey or pale buff, blotched, spotted, 

 and streaked with rich purple-brown, sometimes so dark as to be almost 

 black, and with pale purple-grey undermarkings. The surface-spots are not 

 nearly so scrawly as those on the Yellow Hammers' eggs, and are usually 

 rather blurred and not nearly so numerous. Some specimens are very 

 handsomely marked with large blotches, some of them being the size of a 

 small pea, while others are nearly white in ground colour and very sparingly 

 marked. They vary in length from '85 to '65 inch, and in breadth from 

 '60 inch to -55 inch. 



Two broods are frequently reared in the season, the young being fed 

 almost entirely on larvae and small insects. In May 1893, I disturbed a 

 Cuckoo from a nest of this species in a rush bush on the shore of the Lake 

 of Monteith, and on examining the nest I found the Cuckoo's egg in it. It 

 was pale buff colour, thickly spotted all over with reddish-brown spots. The 

 two Reed Buntings mobbed the Cuckoo as she flew away from the nest and 

 followed her till she was some distance away. 



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