PLATE I 

 REED BUNTING. Emberiza schceniclus 



May 27///, 1893. This Plate is taken from a photograph of a very pretty 

 nest among sedges and reeds on the shores of the Lake of Monteith. At the 

 mouth of a small burn, running into the lake, was a small marshy meadow, 

 dotted over with clumps of willow-bushes and patches of tall sedges and 

 flowering reeds. This was a perfect paradise for Reed Buntings and Sedge 

 Warblers, and one could take eight or ten nests of each species in one 

 morning in the old days, but the meadow has been drained and otherwise 

 reclaimed, and now not one pair remains for every ten that used to nest there. 

 There are still, however, one or two nice clumps of willows, each of which 

 holds a pair of Reed Buntings, and the male may generally be seen on some 

 twig pouring forth his monotonous little song, or dodging about among the 

 reeds and grasses catching insects. 



The nests were usually among the sedges, about six or seven inches 

 above the ground, among the stems of the weeds and grass, and were 

 beautifully built of reed-leaves and lined with the flower of the reeds. The 

 male has a habit of accompanying you along the bank of the stream, letting 

 you come almost up to him and then flying on again, sitting on some twig 

 jerking his tail and calling. When he has gone far enough away from his 

 haunt and has, as it were, seen you off the premises, he makes a detour and, 

 crossing the stream, flies back to his usual perch. 



When the young have been hatched the old birds are very busy collecting 

 insects to feed them with, and the male is more demonstrative than ever in 

 showing you past his domain, flying back with an air of 'that's all right' 

 after he has seen you safely past. 



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