Fig. 234.—Java Sparrows, or Rice Birds (Loxia oryzivora, Linn.).
Another species of the Ploceinæ construct their nests in a clump under one roof or cover, each nest having a separate entrance on the under side, but not communicating with that next it. Another variety is said each year to attach a new nest to that of the previous year, and nothing is more picturesque than these groups of nests thus suspended to the branches of a tree.
But the most curious of birds, in respect to nidification, are the Republican Weaver Birds (Loxia socia, Latham). These establish themselves, to the number of five or six hundred, upon the same tree, constructing their nests under a common roof, the one backing against the other, like the cells of a bee-hive, all living together in the happiest manner.
The Buntings (Emberizidæ) are intimately associated with the Passerine birds. They are characterised by a short, stout, conical bill, the upper mandible narrower than the lower, its dorsal outline nearly straight, sides convex, edges inflected, the tip acute; the lower mandible has the angle short, broad, and rounded. In the palate is a hard, bony knob to bruise the seed which forms their principal food. Their general habitat is the fields and hedges upon the margin of woods; some few species haunt the banks of rivers. They build their nests on the ground, or on low bushes, and in this they deposit four or five eggs. The young, when hatched, are blue. Their plumage is deficient in brilliancy, but their song is not without attractions. In autumn, when they leave the colder regions to go south, fattened with the rich produce of the harvest-fields, they have a rich, delicate flavour, and are then in France eagerly sought after for the table, and frequently brought to market along with Larks and Ortolans.
Fig. 235.—The Reed Bunting (Emberiza schœniclus, Yarrell).
Fig. 236.—The Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus, Yarrell).
The Buntings are divided into the Buntings properly so called, in which the claw of the back toe is short and hooked, and the Spurred or Lark Buntings (Plectrophanes, Meyer), in which it is long, straight, compressed, and slightly arched. To the first of these divisions belongs the Reed Bunting (Emberiza schœniclus, McGillivray), [Fig. 235], which may be considered the type of the group, and is a constant resident all the year round in France and England, but migratory in Scotland and other northern countries.