EMBERIZIN.E. 



209 



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THE YELLOW BUNTING. 



Emberiza citrixella, Linnaeus. 



The Yellow Bunting is familiarly known as the Yellow Hammer ; 

 the latter portion of the name having, no doubt, a common origin with 

 ' Ammer,' the modern German word for a Bunting ; but our form of 

 spelling has now been in print for upwards of two centuries, and 

 few, even among purists, will risk the imputation of a solecism by 

 omitting the aspirate. The species is for the most part common 

 and resident throughout the British Islands ; it even nests in the 

 Outer Hebrides and the Orkneys, but as yet is not known to do so 

 in the Shetlands, although a winter-visitor to that group. As regards 

 Ireland Mr. Barrington remarks that, considering its abundance, the 

 birds which strike against the lighthouses are comparatively few in 

 number. 



In Norway the Yellow Bunting is found breeding up to about 

 70^ N. lat., but eastward, its northern summer range gradually 

 declines to 64° on the Ob, in Siberia, and even less in the valley of 

 the Yenesei, where the bird is not known eastward of Krasnoiarsk ; 

 while to the south-westward, it occurs in Turkestan, Persia and 

 Asia Minor. In temperate Europe this species is generally dis- 

 tributed, and, except in the northern districts, is resident ; but its 

 breeding-range does not appear to extend southward of the Pyrenees 

 and the Cantabrian Mountains, nor the northern portions of Italy ; 

 while, even in winter, the bird is almost unknown in the islands of 

 the Mediterranean, Southern Italy, and the south-west of Spain, 



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