1884-85.] Edinbitrgli, Naturalists Field Club. 207 



We come now to the Yellow-Bunting, and concerning it little 

 need be said, as most people are well acqiiainted with the bird 

 under its more popular names of Yellow-yite and Yellow-yorlin. It is 

 one of our commonest, but at the same time most beautiful, species. 

 Go where you will in the country, you are sure to meet it, except 

 in very bare and wild districts, where cultivation does not exist 

 nor trees flourish. But even to these secluded regions it some- 

 times penetrates. In a previous paper two years ago, I took occa- 

 sion to mention the superstitions that used to exist in connection 

 with it, so need not recur to them again, except to express the 

 hope that the rising generation may be blessed with a little more 

 sense on that subject than seemed to be possessed by our fore- 

 fathers, to whom this innocent creature was a positive bete-noir. 

 Some quarters abound with it, and none more so than the parish 

 of Stobo, in Peeblesshire. By Tweedside, and all along the high- 

 road, which is margined with tine hedges, it is conspicuous in summer 

 time, as it flits from side to side when disturbed by passers-by, or, 

 taking up its stance on some prominent twig or neighbouring tree, 

 it essays to execute the ever-recuri-ing notes that pass muster with 

 it for song. The sad character of the chant is in reality its only 

 merit, and although monotonous to a degree, it somehow strikes 

 upon one's sense of hearing with a pleasing effect ; and if, as an 

 adjunct, the day be warm and bright, it has a tendency to increase 

 in us that soothing sort of lethargy that seems to take possession 

 of one's frame when in the open air on a genial summer day. Its 

 abundance is apt to cause its being overlooked by the generality 

 of folks, but among our commonei' native birds we can pretend to 

 few that surpass it in quiet beauty of plumage, which, without 

 being too gaudy, has yet enough of brightness in its component 

 parts to make it an object worthy our notice. A parallel instance 

 to this might be given in the case of the Chaffinch, or, to descend 

 lower in the scale, in that of the House-Sparrow. An old male of 

 the latter species is by no means so despicable in his pure country 

 garb as his sooty and saucy relation in our large cities : in fact, 

 under those different conditions they hardly look like the same 

 bird. When seated, the Yellowhammer has a habit of shaking 

 its tail up and down, not from side to side, as is the ordinary 

 practice of other birds, and at the same time utters a sharp, harsh 

 note, which would appear to indicate that although seemingly occu- 

 pied solely in enjoying itself, it has a quick eye to detect danger, as 

 well as for the main chance, its lucky numeral on those occasions, 

 like that of the human order, being " Number One." The adult 

 males, from their extra colouring, are easily distinguished from the 

 females ; but the young cocks at first bear a strong resemblance 

 to the old hens, until, in the spring succeeding that in which they 

 were hatched, the pure yellow of the head and breast becomes so 



