CORN BUNTING. 57 



And that bird is called the cross-bill : 



Covered all with blood so clear. 

 In the yroves of piiie it singeth 



Songs, like legends, strange to hear. 



[LoxiA LEUCOPTERA — White-wingcd Crossbill.] 

 Worcester, 1838; Great Yarmouth, 1870. 



[LoxiA BiFASCiATA — Two-barred Crossbill.] 

 Cumberland, Suffolk, Essex, and Cornwall. 



[Sub-family — EMBERiziNiE.] 



[Genus — Emberiza.] 



[Emberiza melanocephala — Black-headed Bunting.] 



\Euspiza mela7wcephala — ^arrell?^ 



Brighton, 1868. 



EMBERIZA MILIARIA— Corn Bunting. 



The Bunting, or Bunting Lark, is not unfrequent ; being fairly 

 distributed over the arable parts of the county. It can scarcely be 

 said to be abundant in Herefordshire. It lives in pairs during the 

 spring and summer, but becomes gregarious through the autumn 

 and winter, when it associates with Chaffinches, Yellow Hammers, 

 Linnets, Sparrows, and other farm-yard visitors. It feeds on corn 

 and seeds of plants principally, and is so determined a corn hunter, 

 that it will pull out the straws from the stack to get at the ears of 

 corn, and in this way a flock of them sometimes does much 

 mischief. 



This Bunting is thought to be a favourite quarry of the Sparrow 

 Hawk, from its being often found in the Hawk's stomach by the 

 bird-stuffer. 



