Le BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
but duller; cheeks and ear-coverts dull yellowish 
brown, spotted with darker; throat dull yellow, 
spotted with black; breast dull olive, spotted and 
streaked with dusky; under parts dull dirty yellow, 
streaked mostly on the flanks with dusky. The 
young birds resemble the female.* ‘The adult male 
cannot easily be mistaken for any other bird, but 
the young birds and the females may easily be mis- 
taken for Yellowhammers; the olive-green, however, 
on the head and tail-coverts will always distinguish 
them. 
The eggs are very much lke those of the Yellow- 
hammer, but rather smaller, of a dull whitish brown, 
tinged with blue and scrawled all over with dusky. 
This is the last of the buntings which I have been 
able to include in this list. All the species in this 
family appear to be useful, and also, to a certain 
extent, mischievous to man, punishing, no doubt, 
his growing crops, especially round the hedges, and, 
as has been before mentioned, occasionally damaging 
his ricks; but this damage is the fault of the farmer 
himself for putting his ricks loosely and carelessly 
together. The grain picked up in the stubble-fields, 
of course, I do not consider mischief; but grain, 
however obtained, is by no means the only food of 
these birds, as the old birds feed to a considerable 
* See Yarrell, vol. 1, p. 524. 
