REED-BUNTING. 135 



EMBERIZA SCHCENICLUS. 

 REED-BUNTING. 



(PLATE 15.) 



Emberiza hortulanus arundinaceus, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 274 (1700). 



Euiberiza schoeniclus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 311 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Gmelin, Latham, (Kaup), Temminck, (De gland fy Gerbe), Naumann, Drester, 



Newton, &c. 



Emberiza arundinacea, S. G. Gmelin, Iteise Rmsl. ii. p. 175 (1774). 

 Cynchramus schoeniclus (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 

 Schoenicola aruudinacea (2?ms.), Bonap. Rev. Grit. p. 164 (1850). 



The Reed-Bunting is one of the most widely distributed of the British 

 Buntings and breeds more or less commonly in all marshy districts 

 throughout England and Wales. It is also as common and widely dispersed 

 in Scotland, both on the mainland and on most of the adjacent islands, 

 extending to the Outer Hebrides. It becomes rarer in Orkney, where it 

 is occasionally known to breed ; and to the . Shetlands it is merely a 

 straggler, three examples only being recorded by Dr. Saxby a female and 

 two males. In Ireland it is also very common and distributed over the 

 whole island, where it is a resident. 



The Reed-Bunting in one of its three or more forms is found throughout 

 the Palsearctic Region, with the exception of Palestine and the tundras of 

 the north beyond the limit of forest-growth. It is generally a resident, 

 but in the northernmost portions of its range is only a summer visitor, 

 and further south it is probable that many migrate south on the approach 

 of winter, whilst in North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor, Turkestan, China, 

 and the central and southern islands of Japan it is only a winter visitor. 

 In such a large range it is not to be wondered at that the Reed-Bunting is 

 subject to considerable local variation, especially in the size of the bill. 

 The smallest form, E. schoeniclus, var. passerina, breeds in Eastern Siberia 

 and winters in China. The typical form is found throughout Europe and 

 West Siberia, both varieties occurring in the valley of the Yenesay. A 

 form which is called E. schoeniclus, var. palustris, is found in Japan, Italy, 

 and Spain ; whilst the largest and palest form, E. schoeniclus, var. pyrrhu- 

 loides, having a bill so large that Finsch has placed it in a different genus, 

 is a resident in the upper valley of the Irtish in South Siberia, in Turkes- 

 tan, and the deltas of the Volga and the Danube. The selection of four 

 forms to be honoured with a name is purely arbitrary. Although the 

 extreme forms appear to be almost generically distinct, they are connected 



