I20 ThK CiRL BuXTINTr 



routs, aud quantities of dead leaves. It is lined with oue or two scraps of moss, 

 a few pieces of fiue grass, and a great quantity of short hair." 



The eggs of the Cirl Bunting vary much less than those of the Yellow 

 Bunting; but Seebohm states that some of them liave a greenish-white ground- 

 tint. 



Lord Lilford says: — "The few nests I have met with were all placed on steep 

 banks by the side of a road or footway, amongst low bushes and herbage, and 

 were built of moss and grass-stalks, with a lining of cow's hair." 



Herr Gatke (Birds of Heligoland, p. 371), states that he has only twice 

 obtained this Bunting on the island ; he gives Zaiincviniur as the German trivial 

 name of the species; but Von Homeyer (in the Gefiederte Welt, 1891, p. 444) 

 applies this name to Einhoiza cia, using the term Zippa»n>icr (used for the Meadow 

 Bunting alone by Gatke), in a generic sense. If two such distinct species as 

 Embcriza chins and E. cia are each called "The Hedge Bunting" b}' well-known 

 writers, the confusion respecting them is likely to be as fruitful of mischief as the 

 incorrect application of the trivial name of Black-headed Bunting to Einboiza 

 ichccnicluis has been in England. 



The food of this species is similar to that of its congeners ; consisting largely 

 of grasshoppers, beetles, moths, caterpillars, and spiders, during the breeding- 

 season ; but in autumn and winter, of various seeds and grain. In confinement 

 it lives well on the usual mixed seeds, including oats, with the addition of an 

 occasional mealworm, cockroach, or spider. 



Like most of the British Buntings, the Cirl Bunting (if kept in an aviary) 

 is, as Lord Lilford observes, " dull, silent, and greed}-." Rarely one may hear 

 it sing, once or twice perhaps in the course of a month : it is not, however, an 

 aggressive bird ; and, when it does show itself, makes a pretty addition to a 

 collection of Finches. My late friend, Mr. Phillip Crowley, purchased a pair at the 

 Crystal Palace Show some years ago, and turned them out into his mixed garden 

 aviary, where, I believe, they lived for several years; but one which I had (I think 

 in 1893 or 1894), only survived for about a twelvemonth, dying suddenlj- without 

 apparent cause. 



