THE YEIXOW BUNTING.* 



Clare thus gives us one of his exquisite little pictures : — 



" Just by the wooden bridge a bird flow up, 

 Seen bj' the cow-boy as he scrambled down 

 To rcacli the misty dewberry. Let us stooj) 

 And seek its nest. The brook we need not driad ; 

 'Tis scarce!}- deep enough a bee to di'owu, 

 As it sings harmless o'er its pebbly bed. 

 - — Ay, here it is! Stuck dose beside the bank, 

 Beneath the hunch of grass that s])indles rank 

 Its husk-seeds tall and high : 'tis rudely planned 

 Of bleached stubbles and the withered fare 

 That last year's harvest left upon the land, 

 Lined tliinly with the horse's sable hair. 

 Five eggs, pen-scribbled o'er with ink their shells. 

 Resembling writing scrawls, which Fancy reads 

 As Nature's poesy and pastoral spells ; 

 They are the yellow-hannuer's ; and she dwells. 

 Most ])oet-like, 'mid brooks and flowery weeds." 



The name cinploycd by tlio poet, of yellow-hammer, is one frequently applied to llie 

 yellow bunfinp;. Apart from its .song, it is one of the most interesting of tlu> small birds 

 of Britain, and wliich its people can study both summer and winter. It frequents I lie 

 hedges, bushes, and copses, but not the thick forests. The female sits so closely, tliat 

 she will suffer herself to be taken rather than expose her eggs to the cold ; llie male ;il 

 times feeds her; and when slie Hies o\it for a little, he takes her plaee during;- licr 

 absence, so that after the incubation begins, the eggs are never longer exposed llian tlie 

 time that the birds require to shift their places. The unfledged yo\ing are allcnded to 

 with similar assiduity. 



* F.nibcriza ('itT-inclla. 



