BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 487 
its little tenement in a situation of that kind, and accord- 
ingly we both of us began to move in different direc- 
tions, m order to discover by the actions of the birds 
where their treasure lay. My friend traversed one side of 
the osier bed, and myself the other; but still the loving 
and faithful couple remained in precisely the same spot 
where the junction of two hedge-rows formed a corner ; 
and we therefore concluded, naturally enough, that in that 
spot all their hopes were centred. But a close and mi- 
nute investigation of the whole corner, during which time 
we laid the ground completely bare, revealed nothing to 
us. At length, a full hour after the commencement of 
our labours, I hit upon the nest by mere chance, at ex- 
actly the opposite end to that at which the Reed Buntings 
had been, and still were, prosecuting their whinings and 
maneuvres, which now proved beyond a doubt, what I had 
never before suspected, that the birds had been all the 
time endeavouring to attract our attention towards them, 
instead of towards their nest.” 
The eggs of this bird are four or five in number, of a 
pale purple brown colour, streaked with darker purple 
brown; the length nine lines and a half, and seven lines in 
breadth. Incubation commencing, Mr. Jenyns says, about 
the first week in May, and occasionally a second brood is 
produced in July. The food of the Black-headed Bunt- 
ing is grain, seeds, insects, and their larve; the young 
are probably fed for a time on the latter. In winter these 
birds associate with others, forming flocks, and visiting 
gardens, barn doors, and stack-yards in search of seeds, 
or grain of any kind. 
The Black-headed Bunting occurs in the localities suited 
to its habits in all the southern counties of England; it is 
common in Wales; and Mr. Thompson includes it as 
