THK CIKI, nUKTING. ' 



This bird is foimd only in the warmer counties on the British Channel, and it is con- 

 lined to the southern parts of the continent. This might be inferred even from its 

 plumage, which is more soft and loose, and less fitted for couteuding with the winds, than 

 the other bimtings, and much more so than that of the species which breeds in the 

 distant north. 



In the male bird the bill is bluish above, and pale on the under part. Tlic irides arc 

 hazel, inclining to brown. The throat, and a streak across the eye, arc greenish-black, 

 with a streak of bright yellow above, and a paler one below it. The gorget is pale 

 yellow. Tbe sides of the neck and lower part of the breast are pale olive-green, with a 

 soft tinge of gray passing into other tints on the belly and sides. The female has the 

 top of the head dull olive-green ; the flanks are streaked with brown, where they are 

 mottled with reddish-orange in the male, and the colours are generally less bright and 

 pure. 



In winter, the cirl buntings associate with the yellow buntings ; and they resemble 

 them in their manners, their notes, and partially in their aiipcarance, only they are 

 rather smaller, their song is softer, and their colours more varied. The voice, too, is not 

 so loud or harsh, and the chiip of the female is particularly soft. 



The indefatigable and discriminating ^Montague first ascertained the cirl bunting to bo 

 a British bird in the winter of 1800, and soon after its nest was found by the same 

 ornithologist. It builds rather earlier than the yellow bunting, or, at least, than that 

 bird does in the middle latitudes of Britain. The nest is generally built in bushes, and 

 the eggs are about the same in number, but rather .smaller, without the yellowish tinge 

 in the ground, and -nith the lines, which are mixed with the drops, more waved. 



' Einlicrii!-.! C'iihit^. 



