NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



Although certainly a singer, the Reed 

 Bunting is not a great feathered musician, 

 its song consisting of a few simple notes 

 which the bird delivers with considerable 

 persistency from the top of a reed or 

 alder bush. It sounds like te, te y tu, te, 

 diversified by an occasional discordant 

 raytsh. Bechstein, the great German 

 authority on cage birds, says that it 

 is such an admirer of music that it will 

 approach an instrument without fear, 

 and testify to its joy by extending its 

 wings and tail like a fan and shaking 

 them. 



The alarm cry is a sharp twitter, and 

 when the male is afraid to approach the 

 nest (either to take his turn in the labours 

 of brooding or with food for the young) 

 on account of some real or fancied danger, 

 he persistently reiterates three melan- 

 choly notes that sound like " Don't hit 

 me." 



This species breeds fairly commonly 

 near sluggish streams, ponds, swamps, 

 and large sheets of water with reed-clad 

 shores. 



Its nest is generally situated amongst 



long grass, rushes, nettles, and sedges, 



although I have found it in the heather 



in the Outer Hebrides, and in a small 



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