YELLOW HAMMER 



5 D 



the absence of a white patch on the outer tail-feathers, the blunted 

 contour of the tips of the secondary quills of the wings, and the 

 characteristic bunting - beak. The colour of the plumage — which 

 presents no sexual difference — on the upper- parts is hair- brown 

 streaked with darker brown, the wing-coverts being, however, dark 

 brown with buff edges ; the throat and upper part of the breast, as 

 well as, in a somewhat less degree, the flanks, are tinged with buff 

 and streaked with dark brown, but the remainder of the under-parts 

 is dull white ; young birds are darl'cer than their parents, with the 

 light margins to the wing-coverts tawny rather than buff. 



Ranging only as far north as the south of Scandinavia, and in 

 Russia to the neighbourhood of Riga, while to the southward it 

 extends to the Canaries and the north of Africa, the bunting is pretty 

 generally distributed all over Europe between these limits, where it 

 is a resident species, while to the eastward it is found as far as 

 central Persia. In Great Britain the species occurs almost everj'where, 

 having been recorded from the Shetlands, but not apparently from 

 the Outer Hebrides. In Wales, however, it is mainly confined to a 

 narrow strip of country near the coast. Like the sk}^-lark, the resident 

 British birds migrate to a great extent at the approach of winter to 

 the southern counties. The name of corn-bunting bears testimony to 

 the partiality of these birds in the south of England for cornfields, in 

 which the nest is generally placed, protected by a tussock overshadow- 

 ing a hole in the ground. The eggs, which should be looked for 

 towards the latter part of May, are noticeable for the boldness of 

 their purplish-black markings, which take the form of blotches, spots, 

 and straight and scribbled lines on a ground varying from greyish 

 buff to pale brownish purple. 



Yellow Hammer Although the name yellow hammer is admittedly 

 ^Emberiza ^ corruption of the German aiuvier (a bunting), it 

 eitpinella") '^ ^*^° firmly ingrained in the vernacular to be dis- 

 placed even by the alternative book-title of yellow 

 bunting, much less by yellow ammer. With this species we come to 

 one of the more typical representatives of the group, characterised 

 by the presence of a white patch on the tail-feathers. The cock is 

 unmistakable on account of his bright lemon-yellow head and neck ; 

 on the back of the neck is a grey area, extending on to the back of 

 the head as two widely sundered bands ; the back and wings are 

 mostly wood-brown with darker streaks, but the hind portion of the 

 former is chestnut ; a tinge of chestnut is likewise noticeable on the 



