THE REED-BUNTING 255 



On our way to the Black-headed Gulls' colony a 

 Redshank was seen perched on top of a pole on the 

 banks of the river, and on our return some time 

 later it was still there, and remained there for a 

 while longer ; but on our trying to take a photo- 

 graph it had gone. Others were flying about a 

 meadow near by ; but for some reason this one 

 seemed to prefer the post, although this stood 

 within a few yards of passing boats. 



One of the most interesting birds we saw during 

 our short stay among the Broads was the Reed- 

 Bunting, or Reed-Sparrow as it is more frequently 

 called. In all places these were to be seen sitting 

 and swinging among the tall reeds. Any intruder 

 going near a nest caused them to fly' on a little 

 farther, to attract intruders from the locality. We 

 found numbers of their nests ; and having heard 

 much about their being very close sitters, I ex- 

 pected to have an easy task in photographing 

 one ; but after many attempts I had to give up 

 this idea. 



Near one nest I left a small stool covered over 

 with reeds for two or three hours to resemble as 

 near as possible the way I afterwards hid the 

 camera, so that the bird should get used to seeing 

 it. While the stool was there one of the birds 

 returned ; but on placing the camera in exactly the 



