Part 19

THE PINE GROSBEAK Pyrrhula enucleator (Linnæus)

This species, as its name indicates, is an inhabitant of pine woods and makes its home in the vast conifer forests of Northern Europe and Siberia. Over the rest of Europe it is very scarce and is only known from occasional stragglers. In this country about forty different occurrences have been recorded, but it is probable that a large number of them had escaped from captivity.

The general colour of the male is a rich rose red all over, rather greyer on the flanks and belly. Wing coverts brown, each feather having a pinkish white tip. Quills and tail brown, secondaries margined with white. In the female the rose tint is replaced by a dull golden yellow. The young are greyish green and do not assume their full plumage before their second year. Length 8·25 in.; wing 4·25 in.

THE CROSSBILL Loxia curvirostra, Linnæus

The Crossbill is by no means a common bird and very uncertain in its appearances. A fair number breed as early as March in the pine woods of Scotland, and during the rest of the year it wanders about in small parties. Feeding chiefly though not exclusively on the seeds of the pine, which the peculiar formation of its beak enables it to reach with ease, it will generally be found in plantations of evergreens. Essentially of a wandering nature, it never stays long in one locality, but leads a regular roving gipsy existence, frequently making its home wherever it happens to find itself in the breeding season, and from this cause it has nested at irregular intervals in many of the southern counties of England and in Ireland. The nest is always built on the fork or lateral branch of a fir-tree, and is composed of twigs, grass, and moss, lined with finer materials of the same kind.

The eggs are usually four in number and are pale blue with a few reddish spots and streaks towards the larger end. It is a very silent bird and has no song worthy of a name. The call-note is "gip-gip."

Insects and caterpillars are largely consumed during the summer, but seeds and berries form their chief food in winter.

When first hatched the bill in young birds is straight, but it assumes its characteristic shape very soon after they are fledged.

The adult male is crimson all over except the wings and tail, which are brown. The female is dark greenish yellow with striations of a darker tint. The young resemble the female but are greyer and greener. Young cocks probably do not assume their full plumage until the second or third year but they breed in their immature dress. Old cocks lose the red and become golden yellow. Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·8 in.

The bill varies considerably in this species, and many individuals, which have a very stout bill, have been considered and named as a separate species, known as the Parrot Crossbill. These stout-billed individuals are most numerous in Scandinavia and Northern Russia, though they have been also obtained in this country, and their claim to specific rank is still a debatable point.

THE TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL Loxia bifasciata (C. L. Brehm)

This species, whose true home is in Northern Russia and Siberia, has visited this country in small flocks on several occasions.

It may easily be distinguished from the Common Crossbill by the two white wing-bars; it is also rather smaller in size. Length 6·25 in.; wing 3·7 in.

THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING Emberiza melanocephala, Scopoli

The Black-headed Bunting must not be confused with the Reed Bunting, which is known in many parts of the country under the former name.

The true Black-headed Bunting is an inhabitant of South-eastern Europe, but it occasionally wanders westwards and has been taken about four times in this country. The male has the head black, back brownish orange, and under parts bright lemon yellow. The female and young are yellowish brown, and the male in autumn has the bright colours obscured by rufous edgings to the feathers. Length 6·75 in.; wing 3·7 in.

THE CORN BUNTING Emberiza miliaria, Linnæus

One cannot well mistake this species, as he sits on the telegraph wires bordering the road, uttering times without number the long drawn-out "dzree-e-e" that serves him for a song.

In appearance he much resembles the Skylark, but, unlike that species, which is always so alert and ever on the move, the Corn Bunting spends most of his day sitting in an exposed situation on a hedge or on some tall plant in the open field. The nest is a fairly neat structure of grass, roots, and moss, with a lining of horsehair, and is usually placed on the ground in the middle of a field, and often at no great distance from a bush or some other post of vantage on which, as noted above, he spends the greater part of the day. The eggs are extremely handsome, being of a creamy white boldly blotched and scrolled with very dark brown. Insects and seeds are equally consumed, and both being abundant on the cultivated land, in which he delights, he earns an easy living with the minimum of exertion.

During the winter months he loves company and consorts with the Larks and Finches, generally roosting on the ground with the former.

The sexes are alike and have the upper parts pale brown streaked with a darker shade of the same colour. Throat whitish margined with brown spots; rest of the under parts buffish white spotted on the breast and flanks with brown. Length 7 in.; wing 3·6 in.

The young are rather darker and have the wing coverts broadly margined with fulvous.

It is by no means so abundant as the next species but is widely distributed in open, wild, or cultivated country.

THE YELLOW BUNTING Emberiza citrinella, Linnæus

Day after day throughout the spring and early summer months the Yellow Bunting may be found, sitting on the topmost spray of a hedge and repeating with monotonous frequency his little song, which has often been rendered by the words, "A little bit of bread and no cheese." It is neither long nor pretty, there is no music in it, and it is delivered without soul or fervour, yet in open and cultivated country, where the songs of the woodland birds are absent, it forms on a warm summer's day, a fitting accompaniment to the more ambitious performance of the Lark. Decked out in bright yellow livery toned down and shaded with other dark markings, the Yellow Bunting receives too little recognition at our hands and is not appreciated at his true worth. Harmless, bright, and sociable in habits, he may be found throughout the year in the open fields and hedgerows, and except during the summer months, when insects form a large portion of his diet, he is essentially a seed-eater, destroying in countless numbers the seeds of the various weeds that have a hard struggle for life amongst the cultivated crops.

The nest is a neat structure of grass, roots, and moss woven together and is lined with horsehair. Five eggs form the usual clutch; they are whitish streaked and veined, after the manner characteristic of this family, with purplish red.

In autumn the young and old visit the standing crops in family parties, and they pass the winter seeking their food on the ground in stubbles and fallows or visiting the stack-yards for the fallen grain.

The male has the head, throat, and under parts bright yellow, spotted or streaked, except on the throat, with dark brown. Mantle yellowish brown with darker streaks. Rump reddish brown. Wings brown with broad deep rufous edgings to the secondaries and wing coverts. Tail feathers dark brown with white spots near the tip of the inner web of the two outer pairs. The female resembles the male, but it is very much duller and darker in colour. The young are pale brown all over, lighter on the under parts and more rufous on the back, each feather having a dark central stripe. Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·25 in.