138 BRITISH BIRDS. 



lay ; but his mate is far more shy, and when disturbed generally hides her- 

 self as soon as possible. She is a very close sitter, and the nest is often 

 almost trod upon ere she will quit her charge. When thus frightened off 

 her eggs or callow young she will feign lameness, and fluttering with 

 seeming broken wings and legs before the observer, try by this cunning 

 artifice to lure him away. Sometimes the male will join his mate in 

 these alluring actions. The young birds are almost exclusively fed on 

 insects. 



The Reed-Bunting is partly insectivorous and partly granivorous. In 

 summer it chiefly eats insects and small freshwater shells, together with 

 larvae of different kinds. It may often be seen in the air chasing passing 

 flies, returning when the capture is effected to its favourite perch. In 

 winter seeds of various kinds are eaten, such as those of grasses, but it 

 will also feed on grain. 



It is only in summer that the proximity of water seems necessary to 

 the Reed-Bunting. In winter it wanders far from its summer resorts 

 and sociably joining other Finches frequently comes to the stackyards 

 in severe weather to pick up what chance grains it can find. It may 

 then be seen on the fields and hedges, and is sometimes flushed from 

 weed-grown wastes in company with Larks and Corn-Buntings. In very 

 severe weather they are often seen, as Mr. Cordeaux remarks, in company 

 with Wagtails and Pipits near the sheep-folds. The bird, however, is not 

 so gregarious as many of the true Finches, and the flocks are rarely large, 

 and usually partly composed of other species. Mr. Gray remarks that 

 there appears to be a large accession to the numbers of this bird in autumn 

 in the north of Scotland. These migratory flocks, he says, mix with 

 flocks of Corn-Buntings. Flocks of these birds are also met with on our 

 eastern coasts in September, sometimes in association with Chiffchaffs and 

 Whitethroats, as recorded in the ' Migration Report ' for 1882. 



The male Reed-Bunting in summer has the head and throat deep black, 

 a white collar passes round the back of the neck and joins the white on 

 the breast, and another broad white stripe extends from the base of the 

 lower mandible and joins the white collar. The general colour of the rest 

 of the upper parts is bright chestnut, shading into bluish grey on the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts, each feather with a brownish-black centre. The 

 wings are blackish brown, margined with light red ; the two centre tail- 

 feathers are similar in colour to the back, the rest are brownish black with 

 narrow reddish margins, except the two outer webs of the two outermost 

 feathers on each side, which are obliquely marked with white. The general 

 colour of the underparts is white, striped with dull brown on the flanks 

 and tinged with grey on the breast. Bill brownish black above, paler 

 below ; legs, toes, and claws brown ; irides hazel. The female differs con- 

 siderably from the male and has no black on the head and throat ; the head 



