434 EMBERIZID.E. 



frequent occurrence in many of the cultivated districts of this 

 country, and remains here throughout the year ; it is perhaps 

 more numerous in the southern counties of Enghand than 

 elsewhere, and is most frequently observed about cornfields, 

 whence one of its provincial appellations, that of Corn Bunt- 

 ing, — a name by which it is also known in Scotland. During 

 spring and summer, this bird, the largest of the true Bunt- 

 ings, may be often seen perched on the upper branch in a 

 tall hedge, or on the top of a low tree, uttering his harsh 

 unmusical notes, wdiich are sometimes continued while on 

 wing as he flics from spray to spray. The nest is finished 

 about the middle or towards the end of April ; it is usually 

 placed on or very near the ground, frequently sustained a few 

 inches above it by the strength of the coarse herbage or 

 tangled briers among which it is concealed. The nest is 

 com])oscd of straw and fibrous roots, mixed with some dry 

 grass, and lined with hair. The eggs are four or five in 

 number, of a reddish white, or pale purple red ground, 

 streaked and spotted with dark purple brown ; the length one 

 inch by eight lines and a half in breadth. 



The adult birds feed principally on grain and seeds, for the 

 breaking down or shelling of which the palatine knob of the 

 upper mandible, and the elevated cutting edges of the lower 

 one, are admirably adapted ; the young birds while nestlings 

 are probably fed with insects and their larvae. Mr. Gould 

 mentions having seen the adult birds feeding on the common 

 cockchafl^er. 



Though living in pairs during the spring and summer, 

 this species become gregarious through autumn and winter, 

 flying in flocks with Chaffinches, Sparrows, and other visiters 

 to the farm-yard and barn door, for the sake of the grain to 

 be there obtained. One destructive habit of this bird is thus 

 described by the author of the Journal of a Naturalist. " It 

 could hardly be supposed that this bird, not larger than a 



