134 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
its general appearance. The nest and eggs closely 
resemble the Yellow Hammer's. The nest is 
built on, or close to, the ground, in or at the foot 
of a bush, and is made of the same dry stems and 
moss, with a lining of fine roots and horsehair. 
The eggs are also purplish-pink, with black 
streaks and scribblings ; they are often rather 
shorter, rounder, and more flat-topped in shape 
than a typical Yellow Hammer's, and with coarser 
and thicker markings, but these differences are not 
sufficiently pronounced to give a certain means of 
identification without a view of the parent bird. 
This is a resident species, and nests during May, 
June, and July. It is a bird which is particularly 
fond of the fringes of the chalk hills. 
REED BUNTING. 
{Ember iza schoeniclus!) 
Reed Sparrow, Black-headed Bunting. The 
true Black-headed Bunting, however, is a bird of 
South-eastern Europe which has been seen less 
than half-a-dozen times in Britain altogether. — The 
Reed Bunting is the water-loving species of the 
family, and is not likely to escape observation by 
any of the sedgy-pool and stream-sides which it 
haunts. The cock is a conspicuous bird in every 
