CIRL-BUNTING 



553 



yellow stripe, while the neck has a gorget of sulphur-}-elIow in front ; 

 the fore part of the breast carries an olive-grey band, followed by one 

 of chestnut-brown ; and the abdomen is yellow. In the hens buff 

 replaces black on the throat, a pale yellow line above the eye alone 

 represents the yellow and black of the head ; the lesser wing-coverts 

 are greenish grey, while black streaks on a dingy yellow ground form 

 the colouring of the under-parts. Still more sombre are young birds, 

 which show no yellow at all, al- 

 though a generally huffish tinge 

 pervades the whole plumage. 



The warmer parts of Europe 

 are the chief home of this species, 

 whose breeding-range appears to 

 be limited to the eastward by 

 the Crimea, although the bird 

 is also known in Asia Minor. 

 Southwards the breeding-area 

 embraces the northern districts 

 of Africa, where, however, the 

 species is better known as a 

 winter immigrant. In the British 

 Islands the cirl-bunting is most 

 commonly seen in the southern 

 counties of England, although it 

 is recorded to have bred in the 

 Midlands. It was observed 



m 



NE ROWLAND WARD STUDIOS 



CIKL-BUXTING. 



Cardiganshire and Carnarvon- 

 shire in 1902, in which year it 

 was also definitely recorded for the first time from Ireland. To 

 Scotland it is only a very occasional straggler. 



Although more addicted to woods, and of a less bold disposition, 

 in general habits the cirl-bunting very closely resembles the yellow 

 hammer. Frequently, however, it nests in bushes — sometimes at a 

 man's height — rather than on the ground ; and the eggs differ in some 

 slight details of colour and marking from those of the more familiar 

 species. 



In September 1905, near Cley, in Norfolk, was shot an example 

 of the yellow-breasted bunting {Einbcriza aureola), a species breeding 

 in the neighbourhood of Archangel and farther east, of which 

 examples have previously been recorded from France, Italy, Austria, 

 and Heligoland. 



