The Reed Bunting. 



179 



so long as an intruder is in the vicinity, or so long as there 

 is danger to be apprehended. Eeed Buntings are cunning 

 and stealthy birds. The number of broods they have in 

 a year varies from one to three, according to the mildness 

 or severity of the weather. The young, if sufficiently 

 feathered, leave the nest at the least alarm, or approach 

 of danger, being warned by their parents, and are then 

 most difficult to capture, as they rush about, and hide them- 

 selves among sedges, rushes, or long grass, and often go to 

 places where it would be imprudent, and at times dangerous, 

 to pursue them. 



Reed Bantings do not breed in confinement under any 

 circumstances, and this is, probably, one of the causes of 

 their brief existence in captivity. 



Methods of Oaptuee. — Reed Buntings may be taken, in 

 the autumn and winter, with clap nets, or with limed twigs, 

 in the same manner as Yellow and Oirl Buntings. They are 

 partial to grass seed, and this should be used as a bait to 

 entice and allure them. 



Food and Teeatment. — In a wild state, these birds feed 

 largely on insects, and wild seeds of various kinds. In con- 

 finement, they will eat the same seeds as their congeners, 

 but show a preference for maw, grass, and lettuce seed, 

 and readily eat the Compound recommended soft-billed birds 

 on pages 189 and 190. A change of diet is essential to 

 preserve these birds in health. 



Rearing the Young. — Young Reed Buntings should be fed 

 the same as the other varieties of the Bunting; but they are 

 hardly worth rearing by hand, as, in the first place, their nests 

 are difficult to find, and at times dangerous to approach; and, 

 secondly, they are not of sufficient value to recompense any 

 one for the time and trouble necessary to obtain and rear them. 



Distinguishing Marks of Cook and Hen. — The head of 

 the female, instead of being black, as in the male specimen, 

 is reddish brown, spotted with blackish brown spots. The 

 cheeks of the hen are brown, with pinkish white patches 

 surrounding the eyes ; on each side of the neck is a stripe of 

 black ; the under side of the neck, breast, sides, and vent, 

 is white, strongly tinged with russet red, striped with 

 dark brown on the breast and sides ; the back is a blackish 

 slate colour, much paler than that of the male, and spotted 



N 2 



