t30 CiRL BUNTING. 



is not so much difference between the two birds in 

 general appearance but that casual observers might 

 well mistake them. The female is even more like the 

 Yellow Hammer than the male, but may always be 

 distinguished by the dark head feathers. « 



The song of the Cirl Bunting is shrill and piercing, 

 " so much resembling the call-notes of the Lesser 

 Whitethroat, that it requires considerable knowledge 

 of their language not to mistake the one for the other ". 

 It feeds on insects, seeds, and berries. It is easily 

 reared if taken from the nest. 



The nest is placed in a low bush or shrub, or 

 amongst brambles and briars, very often in a site 

 similar to the Yellow Hammer, whose nest it greatly 

 resembles. It is made of dry stalks of grass and a 

 little moss, rather loosely put together, and lined with 

 hair and fibrous roots. 



The eggs, too, bear a strong resemblance to some 

 eggs of the Yellow Bunting ; they are usually four in 

 number, dull greenish white in ground colour, streaked 

 and spotted w^ith very dark, almost black brown. They 

 are as a rule much greener than the eggs of the Yellow 

 Hammer, and the markings are much larger, bolder, and 

 more decided ; the thin hair streaks are much less 

 numerous, and the colouring of them is blacker. In 

 shape, too, the eggs seem rounder, and perhaps slightly 

 smaller. It should be remembered that the Cirl Bunting 

 is a rare bird, and its eggs are not likely often to be met 

 with, and from the great similarity between the nest and 

 eggs of this bird and the ensuing one mistakes in classi- 

 fication may easily be made ; so that great pains should 

 be taken to observe closely the parent birds, before the 

 eggs are removed. 



