PASSERES. ( 183 ) EMBERIZIDAi. 



THE YELLOW BUNTING. 



YELLOW HA]\IMER,i YELLOW YELDRING,2 YELLOW YOLDRING, 



YELLOW YOWLEY, YELLOW YITE, YITE, YOLKRING, 



YELDROCK, SKITE, DEVIL'S BIRD, GOLDIE. 



Emberiza citrinella. 



Even in a bird the simplest notes have chartiis 

 For me : I eveti love the Yellow Hammer's song. 



When earliest buds begin io bulge, his ?iote 

 Simple, reiterated oft, is heard 

 On leafless briar or half-growtt hcdgerozv tree ; 

 Nor does he cease his note till autumn s leaves 

 Fallfltiitering round his golden head so bright. 

 Fair phtmaged bird ! cursed by the causeless hate 

 Of every schoolboy, still by me thy lot 



Was pitied ! never did I tear thy fiest : 

 I loved thee, pretty bird I for 'tzvas thy nest 



Which first, unhelped by older eyes, I found. 



GrahaME, Birds of Scotland. 



The Yellow Hammer is plentiful all over tlie county, and is a 

 permanent resident.* The male with his bright yellow head 



1 Yellow Hammei' signifies Yellow Bunting — the word "Hammer" being 

 derived from the same source as the German word "Ammer," which means a 

 Bunting. 



- While weary Yeldrins seems to wail 

 Their little nestlings torn. 



Tannahill, So7igs. 



s Sweet waves the green broom where I saw it of old, 

 And the Yorlin is singing beside the sheep-fold. 



Dr. Henderson, MS. Poems. 

 * The Yellow Bunting has not been observed in any numbers on migration at 

 the Isle of May, a few only being noticed in the autumns of 1880, 1882, and 

 1883, and in the springs of 1883, 1884, and 1885. There is apparently no record 

 of its appearance on migi'ation at the Fame Islands in the Reports on the 

 Migration of Birds, 1879-85. 



