MARSH BUNTING. o3 



the head and breast much deeper. It breeds in the 

 impenetrable reed beds, coming when they are green. 

 When the swamps are swollen it is not to be got at, 

 but later it arrives on the borders of these swamps, 

 and then it is to be discovered by its contrast with 

 the blood-colour of the club reed. It is very lively; 

 the male clings to the joints of reeds, and utters, like 

 Salicaria turdoides, its crisp song. It is not so plen- 

 tiful as E. schceniculus , and goes away earlier." 



Enough has, I think, been said to prove the specific 

 distinction of this bird. Of its nidification Dcgland 

 tells us: — "It nests on the edges of marshes, among 

 rushes, between the roots of aquatic plants. Its nest 

 is composed exteriorly of the filaments of vegetables, 

 dry plants, and is lined with horse-hair. Its eggs, in 

 number from four to five, are of a dull white, dis- 

 tinctly marbled with brown, (according to Temminck,) 

 or (according to Crespon) of a white, shaded into 

 greyish, and marked with a multitude of small broAvn 

 spots, most numerous at the larger end." 



"In manners and habits the Marsh Bunting differs 

 but little from the Reed Bunting. Its note, according 

 to Crespon, is briefer and stronger. The same author 

 remarks that it breaks the stems of the reeds to eat 

 the pith, and that it also feeds on insects." 



The following is Savi's description: — The male in 

 breeding plumage has the beak thick, compressed 

 laterally, curved above and below, obtuse at the point, 

 and of a black colour. It rather resembles a Sparrow's 

 beak, but is shorter. Head, neck, throat, and middle 

 part of breast black; there is a large white band be- 

 ginning at the angle of the beak, and uniting itself 

 with the white of the flanks and abdomen. Scapularies 

 black, broadly margined with fulvous chesnut; the rest 



