194 Among the Birds in Northern Shires. 



known Yellow Bunting, consisting of a double note 

 several times repeated and finishing up with a short 

 spluttering trill. In Yorkshire this song commences 

 early in April, sometimes at the end of March, and 

 continues into the late summer, when the moult 

 arrests it. During winter this Bunting often wan- 

 ders from the water-side, and then we have seen it 

 in the stackyards, but at no time of the year is it 

 ever so gregarious as the Yellow or Cirl Buntings. 

 Flocks of this bird have been recorded from Red- 

 car towards the end of September, and there is other 

 evidence to suggest that our resident individuals are 

 increased in numbers by migrants from the Continent. 

 The first nests of the year are usually made by the 

 end of April, and are placed on or near the ground, 

 amongst a tuft of rushes or amongst the dense 

 vegetation on the banks of the canal or pool. Ex- 

 ternally these are made of dry grass, moss, and scraps 

 of aquatic vegetation; inside they are lined with 

 finer grass and hair. The eggs are from four to six 

 in number, olive or buff in ground colour, streaked 

 and spotted with purplish brown and gray. It is 

 worthy of remark, however, that the intricate pencil- 

 ling so prominent a feature in the eggs of the 

 Yellow Bunting are absent, the lines being shorter 

 and broader and the spots larger and rounder. One 

 might fancy that they had been put on with a quill 

 rather than with a steel pen. Both Pied and Gray 



