CIRL BUNTING. 449 



Chaffinches, among which he obtained several specimens of 

 both sexes. In the following summer these birds were found 

 breeding in several localities on the coast of Devonshire, and 

 a detailed account of their habits, and the mode by which the 

 young were successfully reared, was communicated to the 

 Linnean Society by Colonel Montagu, and was published in 

 the seventh volume of the Transactions of the Society. 



The Cirl Bunting is generally found on the coast, and does 

 not often appear to go far inland. In some of its habits it 

 resembles the Yellow Bunting, last described, the male fre- 

 quently singing from an upper branch of a tree, his song re- 

 sembling that of the yellow bird, but delivered rather more 

 rapidly, and without the long finishing note. The female 

 has but a single call-note. They generally build in furze, 

 or some low bush ; the nest is composed of dry stalks, 

 with a little moss, and lined with long hair and fibrous roots : 

 the eggs are four or five in number, of a dull white, tinged 

 with blue, streaked and speckled with dark liver brown ; the 

 length ten lines, by eight lines in breadth. The young are 

 hatched in thirteen or fourteen days, and are supplied by the 

 parent birds with insect food ; Avhen reared by hand, Colonel 

 Montagu found grasshoppers most serviceable, with the addi- 

 tion of uncooked meat finely divided. Some years since, 

 several old birds were observed, near Brading in the Isle of 

 Wight, to feed constantly on the berries of the woody 

 nightshade. Solarium dulcamara ; and a paste made of these 

 berries, mixed with wheat flour and fine gravel, proved ex- 

 cellent food for some of their young birds, which were reared 

 without difficulty. 



Mr. Blyth has published in the second volume of the Na- 

 turalist some interesting notes on the habits of this species, 

 as observed by himself in the Isle of Wight. It is much 

 more shy than the Yellow Bunting, and frequents trees rather 

 than hedges, particularly the lofty summits of elms. The 



VOL. I. 2 G 



