SGH^NICOLA ARUNDINACEA. 
Reed-Bunting*. 
Emberiza Seh<eniclus, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 311. 
arundinacea, Grael. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., t6m. i. p. 881. 
passerina, Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. p. 49 ? 
Schaniculus, Flem. Brit. Anim., p. 78. 
Cynchramus Schmiiclus, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 974. 
stagnatilis et septentrionalis, Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. Vog. Deutscb., pp. 301, 302. 
Hortulams arundinaceus, Briss. Orn., tom. iii. p. 274. 
Schaenicola arundinacea, Bonap. Consp. Gen. AA^, tom. i. p. 463, Schaenicola, sp. 1. 
However much some persons may be disposed to carp at what they consider an undue division of the 
older genera, and the consequent establishment of new ones, I, for one, believe that the practice, when 
judiciously exercised, has a beneficial rather than an injurious influence upon the study of natural history. 
Thus to keep all the Buntings under one generic appellation, as was formerly done by Temminck and others, 
would rather embarrass thiin assist us in the investigation of that family of birds. No one who has studied 
our native birds can have failed to observe the very great difference in appearance between the Corn-Bunting 
{Cynchramus miliaria') with its uniform colouring, the beautiful Yellow-Hammer {Emheriza citrinella) with its 
gay dress, and the Reed-Bunting {Schcenicola arundinacea) with its black head and white neck-collar ; or 
that these variations in colouring are accompanied by a corresponding diversity of structure, and that, 
besides differing in colour and form, they also differ in their habits and mode of life, each to a certain 
extent affecting different situations in the countries they respectively inhabit, and eaeh being beautifully 
adapted to fulfil the specific office for which they were created. The Corn-Bunting resorts to arable lands 
and arid wastes, the Yellow-Hammer to the hedgerow, and the Reed-Bunting to the fluvlatile portions of 
the country. Of these three species, or at least two of them, many representatives, eonstructed in precisely 
the same form, and having a similar style of colouring and markings, are found in other parts of the world. 
Surely then it becomes necessary that they should not be all arranged under one generic title, but that each 
form should have a designation of its own by which it may be at once recognized : this has accordingly 
been done by modern systematists. 
I have mentioned that the Reed-Bunting resorts to fluviatile districts ; and I may now add that it 
especially affects bogs, marshes, broads, and the basins of rivers, particularly where the common reed 
{Phragmites communis) grows, and osiers, alders, and Avillows abound. On the banks of the Thames and all 
its tributaries, in the feus of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and in all situations where 
rank vegetation clothes the sides of water, from one end of England and Wales to the other, the bird is found. 
In Ireland it is a resident species, that island, from the prevailing humidity, remarks Thompson, being Avell 
suited to it. In Scotland it is scarcely less abundant. In the marshy countries of Holland and Belgium no 
bird is more frequently met with ; neither is it much less numerous in Germany and all the central parts of 
Europe. It also ranges far to the north, in Norway and Sweden. Captain Loche informs us that it is found 
in Algeria ; but it was not noticed there by Mr. Tristram and his friends, nor does that gentleman include 
it in his list of the birds of Palestine. 
I cannot agree with Macgillivray and some other of my eotemporaries when they describe this bird as 
shy and difficult of approach ; for I and all my fellow-fishermen, and, indeed, every one who whiles away a 
pleasant hour on the Thames, find it just the reA-erse. What bird, in fact, AA'hich frequents the banks of that 
beautiful river can be more nearly approached, or AAfliich sits more conspicuously on the hanging branch of 
the Avillow or the upright stem of the osier ? Where is there a bird which allows you to get so near Avhile 
it is in search of stranded seeds, insects, or small mollusks on the margins of the water, or Avhile similarly 
"occupied on the hard-trodden towing-path? All who haA^e visited such localities must have noticed the 
white-necked male flit before them with a jerking flight, or cross the river at right angles to the neigh- 
bouring ait. 
In Scotland this bird is said to leave the eountry during the winter, or, at all events, to become sensibly 
scarcer at that period ; with us on the Thames, and, I believe, in all our central and southern counties, it is 
as abundant in winter as in summer. The greater number remain near water ; but a feAv occasionally seek 
the hedges of the open fallow or grass fields, and, like other birds, Avhen driven to a sti-ait for food, it will 
resort to the farm-yard ; not that grain under ordinary circumstances is an article of its diet, its feeble hill 
being better adapted for the seizure of insects, small seeds, and minute shelled mollusks, all of Avhich are 
readily found in its usual places of resort, the marsh and the Avillow-bed. 
