THE YELLOW HAMMER. 193 



most frequently placed close to the ground, or actually 

 oti the ground, among grass on the skirt of a meadow. 

 Yarrell has suggested that the name " Yellow Hammer" 

 should he written "Yellow Ammer" — the word Ammer 

 being a well-known German term for Bunting ; but as 

 it is doubtful whether it be possible to alter a mode of 

 spelling which has been in common use for two hundred 

 years at least, I have retained the name ajDpiied to the 

 species by our earliest ornithologists, Eay and Willughby. 

 Collectors of eggs should carefully avoid cleaning the 

 eggs of the Buntings, as the dark colouring matter with 

 which they are blotched is easily rubbed off with a damp 

 cloth. 



THE ORTOLAN BUNTING. 



EMBERIZA HORTULANA. 



Head and neck olive-grey, spotted with brown; tliroat, orbits, and a narrow 

 band stretching downwards from tlie gajie, grcenisli yellow ; featli'/i-s ol' the 

 back black, with reddish edges ; those of the lower parts brownish i-ed, edged 

 with ash-grey. Length six inches and a half. Eggs reddish white, spotted 

 and lined with dark red-brown. 



The Ortolan is so rare a visitor in England, that all our 

 knowledge of its habits and haunts is derived from foreign 

 sources. In France, where it is an object of "distinguished 

 consideration," from the delicate flavour of its flesh, it is 

 a migratory bird, arriving about the second week of April, 

 and departing in autumn. The males appear first, and are 

 soon afterwards followed by the females ; their favourite 

 haunts being dry places planted with vines. Soon after 

 their arrival, the female hollows out for herself a small 

 hole at the foot of a vine by scratching and fluttering, 

 after the manner of the domestic Hen. The sides of this 

 hole she overlays with a thick bed of dry bents, and 

 lines the interior with a soft mat of hair. She lays four 



o 



