BLACK-HEADED BIRDS. 47 



Eggs. 4-6, purply-gray or pinkish-brown, boldly 

 spotted and streaked with dark purplish-brown ; 

 77x-59 inch (plate 123). 



Nest. Of dead grass and the leaves and stems of 

 aquatic plants, lined with root-fibres, hair, and reed- 

 lops, and placed in a tuft of rushes or in rank 

 herbage near to water. 



Distribution. General. 



The name of the Reed-Bunting sufficiently well indi- 

 cates his haunts. He is a reed-bird, and as such is to 

 be sought in reed-grown ponds, by the river-side, or 

 on the marsh. The nest is placed a little above the 

 surface of the water or of the ground among reeds 

 or coarser weed growth, and here, clasping a stem, 

 the male is oftenest to be seen, uttering laboriously a 

 simple note ' Trit-trit-trit-tritrit ! ' When disturbed 

 the bird flies from one low perch to another, with a 

 low flitting performed with spasmodic vibrations of 

 the wings. No other British bird of similar size has 

 markings resembling the black head and white collar 

 of the Reed-Bunting, and birds sharing its habit 

 of nesting in and perching on reeds, such as the 

 Sedge- Warbler and Reed-Warbler, are quite different 

 from it in form, markings, and note. Although the 

 Reed- Bunting perches also on bushes and hedge- tope, 

 it rarely ascends trees. When on the ground it hops. 



SEDGE- WARBLER 5 inches ; a small, flat-browed bird, 

 nesting in reeda and low bashes by the water-side ; brown 

 above, darkly streaked; buffy- white below; heavy 

 white eyebrow ; bill narrower and longer than in the 

 Reed-Bunting. The song is a long-sustained, excited, 

 chattering medley of song-notes and other harsher 

 uttered from the bird's hiding-place in the reeds. 



