GROUND riNCDES. 
167 
Tlie Eeed Bunting {JEmheriza scliceniculiis) is found 
in the British Islands, and from Italy to Sweden? 
wherever willows and aquatic herbage, growing in 
swamps and marshy situations, offer a suitable abode. 
The nests of this bird and of the Yellow Hammer 
have often been mistaken one for the other ; but the 
Reed Bunting never suspends its nest between the 
stems of reeds, although it frequents them : on the 
contrary, it is built in a low bush or tuft of grass ; 
its materials are dry grass and moss, lined with 
hair. The Reed Bunting’s eggs are pale pinky grey, 
spotted and veined with reddish-brown; it has no 
song; its food is chiefly seeds of reeds and other 
aquatic plants, insects and their larvae ; when the 
winter weather is severe, it resorts to the farm-yard, 
both for shelter and subsistence. The general colour 
of the bird is pale brown, the male having the head, 
throat, and centre of the chest, black; a patch of 
Avhite, beginning below the angle of the bill, spreads 
round the neck, and extends down the sides of the 
breast and over the under surflice ; quills, brown ; 
rump, bluish-grey. 
The Ortolan Bunting {^Emheriza liortuland), or, as 
it is commonly called, the Ortolan, is said to be 
strictly a native of the southern provinces of Europe. 
Individuals of the species have been killed in this 
country. Its winter residence is Yorth Africa, and 
in its migratory expedition it visits Gribraltar every 
spring and autumn. Its food consists for the most 
part of millet and other grains, together with insects. 
It constructs its nest of fibres and leaves, lines it 
with fine grass and hair, and chooses for its locality 
