486 EMBERIZID.E. 



Both sexes of this bird endeavour to allure intruders 

 from their nest. Mr. Salmon of Thetford says,* " Walk- 

 ing last spring amongst some rushes growing near a river, 

 my attention was arrested by observing a Black-headed 

 Bunting shuffling through the rushes, and trailing along 

 the ground, as if one of her legs or wings were broken. I 

 followed her to see the result ; and she, having led me to 

 some considerable distance, took wing, no doubt much re- 

 joiced on return to find her stratagems had been success- 

 ful in preserving her young brood ; although not in pre- 

 venting the discovery of her nest, containing five young 

 ones, which I found was placed, as usual, on the side of 

 a hassock, or clump of grass almost screened from view by 

 overhanging dead grass. I have invariably found it 

 in such a situation, and never suspended between reeds, 

 as is sometimes stated : it was composed of dead grass, 

 and lined sparingly with hair." 



Mr. Neville Wood, in his British Song Birds, relates an 

 occurrence with the Black-headed Bunting which indicates 

 a still higher grade of intellectual character. It is thus de- 

 scribed : " Some years ago, when walking with a friend, 

 I remember seeing two of these birds in an osier bed, the 

 male perched erect at the summit of a willow stem, and 

 his mate remaining beneath, or only occasionally coming 

 within view. On our entering the osiers, they both flew 

 around us in great alarm, mostly in silence, but sometimes 

 uttering a low mournful kind of note, at the same time 

 darting suddenly about the hedge and willow stems, as if 

 impatient for our immediate departure ; and their manners 

 were so different from those commonly observed in the 

 species, that we were convinced that there must be a nest 

 thereabouts. I was well aware of the difficulty of finding 



* London's Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 505, for the year 1835. 



