General 
descrip- 
tion. 
Male. 
Female, 
244 PASSERES. EMBERIZA.  Reep-Buntine- 
during the period of propagation, by insects and their larvee. 
It associates, in severe winters, with the yellow hammer, and 
other granivorous small birds, and frequently with them ap- 
proaches the farm-yard, as to a sure place of supply. Like 
the above-mentioned bird, it does not begin to breed until the 
spring is pretty far advanced. 
The reed-bunting is found to extend from the warm pro- 
vinces of Italy as far northward as Sweden and Russia. Ac- 
cording to TrmMMINcK, it is particularly abundant in Hol_ 
land. 
Puate 52. Fig. 5. Male bird. Natural size. 
Bill black. Crown of the head, occiput, cheeks, throat: 
and gorget ink-black. On the sides of the neck, a little 
below the angle of the bill, is a white spot. Collar 
round the neck, sides of the breast, belly, and under 
tail-coverts white; on the sides and flanks a few long 
blackish-brown streaks. Back and wings clear pale 
orange-brown, with the centre of each feather brownish- 
black. Quills hair-brown, margined with orange-brown. 
Lower back and rump bluish-grey, with a few black 
spots, and tinged in parts with yellowish-brown. Tail 
having the two middle feathers blackish-brown, deeply 
edged with pale orange-brown; the two outer feathers 
half-white and half-black, with an oblong hair-brown 
spot near the tip; the rest of the feathers black. Legs 
and toes broccoli brown. 
In winter, the feathers of the head, throat, and gorget, are 
margined with yellowish-brown, which disappears on the 
approach of spring, 
Fig. 6. The female, also of the natural size. 
Throat white. Above the eye is a streak of pale reddish- 
brown. Crown of the head yellowish-brown, with the 
shafts of the feathers black. Under parts streaked with 
blackish-brown. 
The young birds resemble the female. 
