34 
BLACK-HEADED BTJ1STIHG. 
shy, but do not remove far when alarmed, quickly settling 
down again. 
The present is another of the species of J)irds which display 
a strong instinctive solicitude for their young. In the 
‘Magazine of Natural History,’ vol. viii, page 505, Mr. Salmon, 
of Thetford, writes, ‘Walking last spring among some rushes 
growing near a river, my attention was arrested by observing 
a Black-headed Bunting shuffling through the rushes, and 
trailing along the ground, as if one of her legs or wings were 
broken. I followed her to see the result; and she having led 
me to some considerable distance, took wing; no doubt much 
rejoiced on return to find her stratagems had been successful 
in preserving her young brood; although not in preventing 
the discovery of her nest, containing five young ones, which 
I found was placed, as usual, on the side of a hassock, or 
clump of grass, and almost screened from view by overhanging 
dead grass.’ They may be kept in captivity: I have seen 
one in a large aviary with a number of other birds of various 
species, but it was by far the most wild of any of them. 
In the winter months they gather in small flocks or assem¬ 
blages, which disperse again to their various ‘country quarters’ 
towards the end of March. 
Their flight is tolerably even and rather rapid, performed 
in a rather undulated line, the wings being opened and shut 
from time to time. Meyer points out how, when roused from 
their nests by any one walking through their haunts, they 
spring up and cling to the slender stems of the osiers or 
reeds, flitting anxiously from one to another; and that they 
sit in a v6ry upright position, swinging upon the weak sprays, 
which their light weight causes to bend under them, and 
continually expanding and closing the feathers of their tails 
by a very quick side motion; the white of which they also 
display, when abruptly alighting, as is their wont. 
Their food consists of insects, and the seeds of reeds and 
<5ther aquatic plants. 
The note is rendered by Meyer by the word ‘sherrip’ pro¬ 
nounced quickly; a mere chirp of two notes, the first repeated 
three or four times, the last single and more sharp. It is 
heard at tolerably frequent intervals; the bird in the mean 
time perched on some small twig, and remaining in a listless 
sort of attitude. 
The nest is commonly placed on the ground, among coarse 
grass, weeds, sedge, or rushes, on a bank near the edge of 
