t the smaller species--the Finches and the
Buntings--which often pass the winter in or near the localities wherein
they brought up offspring or were reared. It is true that they wander
from one field to another according to the abundance or scarcity of
food; it is also true that, if the weather is of a type which precludes
the possibility of finding the necessary food, these wanderings may
become extensive or even develop into partial migrations. But under the
normal climatic conditions which prevail in many parts of Britain, these
smaller resident species seem to find all that they require without
travelling any great distance from their breeding haunts. Flocks
composed of Yellow Buntings, Cirl Buntings, Corn-Buntings, Chaffinches,
Greenfinches, etc., can be observed round the farmsteads or upon arable
land; small flocks of Reed-Buntings take up their abode on pieces of
waste land and remain there until the supply of food is exhausted,
deserting their feeding ground only towards evening when they retire to
the nearest reed-bed to pass the night; flocks of Hawfinches visit the
same holly-trees day after day so long as there is an abundance of
berries on the ground beneath; and so on.

I have mentioned the Reed-Bunting; let us take it as our first example
and try to follow its movements when the influence exerted by the
internal secretions begins to be reflected on the course of its
behaviour. First, it will be necessary to discover the exact localities
in any given district to which the species habitually returns for the
purpose of procreation; otherwise the earlier symptoms of any
disposition to secure a territory may quite possibly be overlooked in
the search for its breeding haunts.

In open weather Reed-Buntings pass the winter either singly, in twos or
threes, or in small flocks, on bare arable ground, upon seed fields, or
in the vicinity of water-courses; but in the breeding season they
resort to marshy ground where the _Juncus communis_ grows in abundance,
to the dense masses of the common reed (_Arundo phragmites_), and such
like places. During the winter, the male's routine of existence is of a
somewhat monotonous order, limited to the necessary search for food
during the few short hours of daylight and enforced inactivity during
the longer hours of darkness. But towards the middle of February a
distinct change manifests itself in the bird's behaviour. Observe what
then happens. When they leave the reed-bed in