BLACK-HEADED BUNTIIfG. 



shy, but do not remove far when alarmed, quickly settling 

 down again. 



The present is another of the species of birds which display 

 a strong instinctive solicitude for their young. In the 

 'Magazine of Natural History,' vol. viii, page 505, Mr. Salmon, 

 of Thetford, writes, 'Walking last spring among 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 

 rejoiced on return to find her stratagems had been successful 

 in preserving her young brood; although not in preventing 

 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, and almost screened from view by overhanging 

 dead grass.' They may be kept in captivity: I have seen 

 one in a large aviary with a number of other birds of various 

 species, but it was by far the most wild of any of them. 



In the winter months they gather in small nocks or assem- 

 blages, which disperse again to their various 'country quarters' 

 towards the end of March. 



Their flight is tolerably even and rather rapid, performed 

 in a rather undulated line, the wings being opened and shut 

 from time to time. Meyer points out how, when roused from 

 their nests by any one walking through their haunts, they 

 spring up and cling to the slender stems of the osiers or 

 reeds, flitting anxiously from one to another; and that they 

 sit in a very upright position, swinging upon the weak sprays, 

 which their light weight causes to bend under them, and 

 continually expanding and closing the feathers of their tails 

 by a very quick side motion; the white of which they also 

 display, when abruptly alighting, as is their wont. 



Their food consists of insects, and the seeds of reeds and 

 other aquatic plants. 



The note is rendered by Meyer by the word 'sherrip' pro- 

 nounced quickly; a mere chirp of two notes, the first repeated 

 three or four times, the last single and more sharp. It is 

 heard at tolerably frequent intervals; the bird in the mean 

 time perched on some small twig, and remaining in a listless 

 sort of attitude. 



The nest is commonly placed on the ground, among coarse 

 grass, weeds, sedge, or rushes, on a bank near the edge of 



