164 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



with a specimen in my collection ; but I do not con- 

 sider mine to be properly identified. The eggs vary 

 occasionally in colouring. 



EEED BUNTING, Emberiza schceniclus. This bird 

 is very common by all the brooks and rivers in 

 the county. It is resident all the year, but rather 

 changes its abode at times, as it flocks more with its 

 own species, as well as with Yellowhammers and 

 Chaffinches, in the autumn and winter, when it joins 

 those birds in searching for food in the stubble- 

 fields, returning to its old haunts in the spring and 

 summer, when it disperses itself in pairs in search 

 of nesting-places. 



The food of the Reed Bunting consists of all sorts 

 of aquatic insects and small Crustacea, which it picks 

 up amongst the reeds and rushes by the sides of 

 streams and rivulets, as well as of corn and seeds of 

 various sorts of grass and weeds. 



The nest is generally placed in a low thick 

 bramble-bush, on or near the ground, or in the 

 rough grass by the side of a bank, and occasionally 

 in an old alder stump : it is made of bents, grass, 

 roots and hair. 



In plumage the male is a very handsome bird, 

 easily recognized in consequence of the black head, 

 from which it takes one of its names, " Blackheaded 

 Bunting," and the bright white collar round the 

 neck. The beak is dusky brown above and paler 

 beneath; irides hazel; the whole of the head is 



