46 EMBERIZIDiE. 



before they are able to fly, their fears induce them to quit 

 their discovered retreat a few days sooner. They are fed 

 mainly if not entirely on insects, which in summer seem to 

 form the chief sustenance of the adults * ; but as autumn 

 approaches they do great service to the agriculturist by 

 consuming the seeds of many noxious weeds, those of 

 the various species of Arenaria, Stellaria and Pulyfjonum in 

 particular. In winter this species is gregarious, flocking with 

 Chaffinches, Greenfinches and other birds, to stack-yards, 

 and at that season it will readily feed on grain, though 

 smaller seeds, which slovenly husbandmen have so often to 

 carry home with the corn, are nearly always the object of 

 its especial search. Sometimes the Yellow Hammer, like 

 the Bunting, will pass the night on the ground ; but in very 

 cold weather the shelter of thick bushes and evergreen shrubs 

 forms its favourite resort at roosting time. In Italy great 

 numbers of this species are caught, with Ortolans, and 

 fattened for the purpose of the table. 



Of the countries inhabited by the Yellow Bunting, it may 

 be sufficient to say that it is a common resident throughout 

 most parts of Great Britain, in the eastern counties regularly 

 receiving an addition to its numbers towards winter, and is 

 even found in the Outer Hebrides. It has been tnown to 

 breed in Orkney, though not in Shetland, but in the latter it 

 is often seen, and in both groups of islands it most fre- 

 quently appears in winter. In Ireland it is common in 

 suitable localities, and, according to Thompson, is resident. 

 It is hitherto unrecorded from the Faeroes or Iceland^ but in 

 continental Scandinavia it occurs, and is by no means rare, 

 so far to the northward as the Alten valley, and it has been 

 seen with its young, by Pastor Sommerfelt, on the Tana. 

 But in these high latitudes it would appear to be chiefly an 

 autumn-visitor, and though its nest has several times been 

 found in the Muonioniska district, Wolley was satisfied that 



* On one occasion the Editor observed an old bird of this species busily 

 engaged with a large Sphinx which was more than it could master, and on his 

 approach it left its prey mangled in the road ; hut generally insects of a more 

 manageable size are undoubtedly preferred. 



