EMBERIZID&. 167 
many other of the grain- and seed-eating birds, 
partially useful and partially mischievous: the use- 
fulness probably in this, as in many other cases, 
more than counterbalancing the mischief. On this 
balance most of our small birds have to be judged, 
and it is as useless for the zealous defender of 
small birds to affirm, as he often does, that they do 
no mischief at all, as it is for the gardener and the 
promoter of Sparrow Clubs to affirm that they do 
nothing but mischief: a case can almost always be 
proved against either. 
This bird will, like the Common Bunting, extract 
grain out of ricks, especially loosely and carelessly 
built ones, by pulling at the end of the straw until 
it pulls it out ear and all: in a well-built rick the 
mischief done in this way is very slight, as the 
straws are too close\and firm in the rick to be 
pulled out without breaking. The principal mis- 
chief it does to the farmer is in eating the corn 
growing near the hedges before it is cut: as a set-off 
to this, it eats a great quantity of seeds of various 
weeds, and in the spring and early summer the food 
of the old birds, as well as of the young brood, con- 
sists almost entirely of insects. 
The Yellowhammer is easily kept in confinement, 
and becomes very tame. It is not, as a rule, an 
early breeder; but exceptions to this rule occasion- 
ally occur, one of which was mentioned in the April 
number of ‘ Kyes and No Eyes.’ 
