76 BIRDS OF MIDDLESEX. 



with its habit of feeding in similar situations, often 

 in company with Larks, has probahly obtained for 

 it the second provincial name above given. 



Although I have stated that this species is resident 

 throughout the year, it is nevertheless, to a certain 

 extent, migratory, for there is a perceptible increase 

 to the numbers in summer, and as perceptible a 

 decrease in winter. 



The eggs vary much in size and colour, and the 

 nest, from its situation among tangled herbage, is 

 not an easy one to find. 



BLACKHEADED BUNTING, Emberiza schoeniclus. A 

 common resident, usually to be found by reedy 

 ponds, and along the brook sides, where it feeds on 

 the small beetles and aquatic insects to be obtained 

 in such situations. It has a great partiality for 

 water, and I have seen a Blackheaded Bunting, 

 when in pursuit of food, walk into the water like a 

 true wader, until the water reached above the tarsus. 

 The males, to a certain extent, lose their black heads 

 in winter and reassume them in March. Specimens 

 shot in midwinter show that this change is effected, 

 not by a complete moult, as is the case with other 

 birds, but by a gradual change of colour in the 

 feathers. 



Some feathers from the head of a Blackheaded 

 Bunting in February were half black, half brown ; 

 and I have never seen a male bird of this species 

 with the head of a uniform brown in winter. 



