294 



LAKES AXD STREAMS 



of willow and alder and tufts of tall grass, as well as the banks of ponds, brooks 



and rivers, reedy ditches 

 lying between meadows 

 and cornfields, and other 

 spots where sedge-war- 

 blers, moorhens, lapwings, 

 and snipe congregate. 

 Ranging over northern 

 and central Europe and 

 Asia south of the forest- 

 line right across to Mon- 

 golia and Kamchatka, in 

 Greece it is known only 

 as a winter visitor, as also 

 in Africa. A thoroughly 

 migratory bird, it gener- 

 ally leaves the north- 

 eastern border of the 

 country it inhabits in 

 September or October, and 

 goes to the south, where 

 it winters until March, 

 although many often 

 spend the winter in Ger- 

 many, or oftener still in 

 the south of England. 

 During the breeding sea- 

 son it prefers low bushes 

 — particularly willows — 

 growing by the side of 

 the water. In autumn, 

 when the clumps of rush 

 and reed become bare and 

 thin, the reed - bunting 

 betakes itself to stubble- 

 fields, and fields planted 

 with cabbages and other 

 crops, away from water. 

 In appearance it somewhat resembles a 

 cock-sparrow, and is a restless bird, con- 

 stantly flying hither and thither, sitting 

 at times on branches, or the stems of 

 reeds and other plants, with drooping tail 

 and twitching wings. When flying, it 

 rises in a peculiar slanting direction, 

 descending suddenly with a flutter and a spread of the tail that shows the white 



THE HEED BUNTING. 



I 



