214 ORTOLAN. 



1885. A. G. More states that in the Museum of Science and Art 

 at Dubhn there is a specimen said to have been taken in co. Clare 

 previous to May 1852. 



The Ortolan visits Heligoland in large numbers on the spring as 

 well as the autumn passage, and is found in summer as far north as 

 the Arctic circle in Scandinavia ; but eastward, its northward range 

 gradually recedes to about lat. 57° in Russia. South of the Baltic the 

 bird is irregularly distributed throughout Europe, and, though local, 

 it is fairly common at no greater distance from this country than 

 some districts in the north of France, Flanders, Dutch Brabant Szc. 

 It is an eminently migratory species. Even in the south of Europe 

 (where it is rather partial to low bushes on stony hill-sides) it is only 

 a summer-visitor ; in Northern Africa, where it breeds in compara- 

 tively small numbers, it goes as far southwards as Abyssinia for the 

 winter; while in Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, and 

 Siberia as far as the valley of the Irtish, it only passes the summer, 

 occasionally visiting the north-west of India. I have known the 

 Ortolan to arrive on the French side of the Pyrenees as early as 

 March 23rd; the return begins in August. 



The nest, built in the latter half of May, of dry grass and roots 

 with a lining of fine bents and hair, is always on the ground, and 

 generally in open fields, though sometimes among coarse herbage 

 or under small bushes. The eggs, 4-6 in number, are pale purplish- 

 grey, distinctly spotted and very little scrawled with purple or black : 

 measurements 78 by '62 in. The natural food consists of beetles 

 and other insects as much as seeds, but in confinement the bird 

 feeds greedily upon oats and millet, until it attains the fatness which 

 is proverbial. The note, which is rather metallic, may be syllabled 

 as tsee-ah, isee-ah, tsee-ah, tyiir. 



The adult male has the crown and nape greenish-grey ; cheeks 

 dusky ; feathers of the back, wing coverts and secondaries fulvous- 

 brown, with dark central stripes ; rump reddish-brown ; tail- 

 feathers brown, with oblong patches of white on the three outer 

 pairs ; throat sulphur-yellow, with a dusky streak from the gape 

 downwards on each side ; pectoral band olive-grey ; lower breast, 

 belly and under tail-coverts warm chestnut ; bill dull red ; legs 

 brownish-orange. Length 6'25 in. ; wing yTy in. Males in their 

 first spring have the rump dull striated brown ; no white on the third 

 inner pair of tail-feathers ; paler under parts. The female has 

 the head greener and more streaked ; upper parts duller; gorget 

 yellowish-buff streaked with brown ; under parts yellowish-buff. 



