THE CIEL BUNTING AND SNOW BUNTING 



(Ember iza cirlus and E. nivalis) 



Amongst the pleasant fields and on the wooded commons 

 of the southern counties the naturalist will sometimes have 

 the c^ood fortune to meet with the rare Girl Buntins^, a bird 

 very closely resembling the Yellow Bunting, but easily 

 distinguished by its dark-green instead of bright-yellow crown, 

 and by its olive-green rump and upper tail coverts, which in 

 the common species are bright chestnut. The Girl Bunting 

 is a very local bird and confines itself almost exclusively to 

 fields where there are tall trees in the hedges, and to the 

 margins of woods and plantations. It is somewhat singular 

 that the Girl Buntincj is so fastidious in its choice of a haunt, 

 when we know its close relation, the Yellow Bunting, is one 

 of the most widely dispersed of birds. Probably the absence 

 of certain favourite food is the reason of its local distribution ; 

 and I am bold enough to hazard the conjecture that the 

 abundance of the grasshopper in our southern counties is the 

 secret of the Girl Bunting's presence in them, that insect 

 being the food on which its young are chiefly reared. 



The Girl Bunting frequents the tall trees rather tlian the 

 lower vegetation, and as it is rather a skulking bird it is apt 

 to be overlooked. It is, however, a most industrious musician, 

 and its song proclaims its presence to him who is conversant 

 with the notes of birds. This resembles very closely the Yellow 

 Bunting's love song, but wants the long-drawn note which 



