Part 20

This species is widely distributed throughout Great Britain, and is often known as the Yellow Hammer, the latter word being a corruption of "Ammer," the German word for a Bunting.

THE CIRL BUNTING Emberiza cirlus, Linnæus

This species is very similar to the Yellow Bunting in habits and plumage, from which it may be most easily distinguished by the black throat and a black line through the eye. In our islands, however, it is very local and chiefly confined to the southern counties, but stragglers have been met with as far north as Yorkshire.

Although frequenting the hedgerows and open country it delights in trees, uttering its song from the higher branches of some hedgerow elm.

The nest is placed near the ground and constructed of similar materials to that of the Yellow Bunting, but the eggs differ in having the markings bolder and chiefly restricted to the larger end, and the hair lines, so numerous on those of the former species, are much fewer in number. Two broods are reared in the season, the young birds being fed on grasshoppers and insects, and the rest of the year is spent in the fields in company with other flocks of Finches.

The male has the top of the head and nape and rump greyish green, streaked with darker. Wing coverts and feathers of the mantle deep reddish brown with dark median spot or streak and broad light margins. Wing and tail dark brown. Cheeks yellow with black line through the eye. Chin and throat black, succeeded by a narrow yellow collar. Upper breast grey; lower breast chestnut. Rest of under parts pale yellow, becoming brownish streaked with darker on the flanks.

The female is much duller in colour and has the throat yellow. She closely resembles the hen Yellow Hammer, but may be distinguished by the absence of yellow on the head and by the lesser wing coverts being reddish brown and not black. The young roughly resemble the female. Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·25 in.

THE ORTOLAN BUNTING Emberiza hortulana, Linnæus

Up to within the last few years this bird was so freely imported alive to supply the wants of epicures that a large number of its supposed occurrences in these islands are open to suspicion. There seems, however, little doubt, that genuine wild examples have reached these islands from time to time.

This species breeds sparingly in Scandinavia and thence southwards through Denmark, Germany, and France, but it is only in the south of Europe that it becomes common, migrating eastwards and southwards to Abyssinia and North India in winter.

The male has the head greyish; rest of upper parts pale brown streaked with black. Throat yellow, becoming greyish on the upper breast; rest of under parts pale chestnut. The hen is duller with darker streaks on the head. Length 6 in.; wing 3·25 in.

THE MEADOW BUNTING Emberiza cia, Linnæus

This Bunting is found throughout Central and Southern Europe; it has only been recorded in this country during the last four years.

The head is blue grey, with three dark stripes across it; wings and tail dark brown, the secondaries edged with rufous; the whole of the rest of the plumage pale cinnamon brown with darker stripes on the back. Length 6·2 in.; wings 3·1 in.

THE SIBERIAN MEADOW BUNTING Emberiza cloides, Brandt

This Asiatic species has only once been taken in Europe, namely at Flamborough Head in 1886. The colour of the upper parts is chiefly chestnut. There is a white superciliary stripe, and a white patch on the cheeks. The under parts are white with a chestnut band across the upper breast Length 6·5 in.; wing 3·4 in.

THE RUSTIC BUNTING Emberiza rustica, Pallas

This is an eastern species, nesting from Archangel eastwards across Siberia, migrating southwards in winter. Of late years it seems to have had a tendency to spread westwards, and stragglers have occurred throughout Europe, including Great Britain.

The adult male is a very handsome bird; the head is black with the exception of a white stripe behind the eye; the upper parts and a band across the breast, chestnut. Under parts white striped with chestnut. The female has the head brown mottled with black, and is otherwise much duller than the male. The young is brown above streaked with darker, the under parts whitish streaked with brown. Length 5·4 in.; wing 3·2 in.

THE LITTLE BUNTING Emberiza pusilla, Pallas

The Little Bunting has a breeding range similar to the last species and occurs almost yearly on migration in Southern Europe, the south-east of France forming its western limit.

The male has the head chestnut with the exception of a black superciliary stripe; rest of the upper parts reddish brown streaked with darker. Chin and throat pale chestnut, under parts white streaked with black on the breast and flanks. The female is duller, and the young bird has the chestnut of the crown replaced by buff. Length 5 in.; wing 2·75 in.

THE YELLOW-BREASTED BUNTING Emberiza aureola, Pallas

This is an Arctic species, ranging in summer across Siberia eastwards from Archangel; in winter it migrates to Palestine and Southern Asia.

An immature female was shot in Norfolk in September 1905.

The adult has the forehead, cheeks, and chin black; rest of upper parts deep reddish brown, brightest on the rump; under parts bright yellow with a narrow chestnut collar across the upper breast. Length 5 in.; wing 3·1 in. The female is much duller, and in winter the colours in both sexes are obscured by long greyish margins.

REED BUNTING Emberiza schoeniclus, Linnæus

The Reed Bunting is an inhabitant of marshy places where osiers, alders, and long rough sedgy grass and reeds abound, and in such localities it is by no means uncommon. In summer the male may often be seen clinging to some reed stem, as he sings his very short and feeble song. Owing to his black head and white collar, which enable him to be very easily distinguished, he is known in some parts of the country as the Black-headed Bunting. The true Black-headed Bunting is, however, a very different bird, but it so rarely occurs in this country that the confusion likely to arise is not very serious. The nest is placed on the ground in the rough grass at the base of some shrub, or in the side of a tussock, and always near water. It is a fairly neat structure, built, like the nests of all Buntings, of grass, bents, and moss, with a lining of hair. The eggs, four to six in number, are very characteristic of this species, the ground colour is usually purplish grey, boldly blotched, marked and streaked with dark brown. Very handsome clutches are sometimes found, in which the ground colour is pale green, showing off the dark scrolls and blotches to great advantage. If the nest be discovered and frequently visited after the young are hatched, they will leave it at a very early age, long before they can fly. In such cases, however, the anxiety of the parent birds as they fly round and round the spot soon leads to the discovery of their children.