120 YELLOW-BREASTED BIRDS. 



may be written ' Trit ! ' and another, resembling 

 the dripping of water upon water, which the birds 

 often use as they pass overhead in jerky, scattered 

 flight. In autumn Yellowhammers band together, 

 frequenting favourite hedgerows or copses, or join- 

 ing the Sparrows and Greenfinches in the stubble 

 lands. 



CIRL-BUNTING— 6^ inches; the throat and a streak 

 through the eye black ; rump olive-brown. South of 

 England bird. 



CORN-BUNTING— 7 inches. An inert percher on hedge- 

 tops, tree-tops, and telegraph wires, emitting a song 

 somewhat akin to that of the Yellowhammer l)y reason 

 of its long-drawn, inflected, terminal note ; but whereas 

 the introductory notes in the song of the Yellowhammer 

 are generally six or seven, the Corn-Bunting as a rule 

 uses only three or four ; and whereas the terminal note 

 of the Yellowhammer is melancholy through its inde- 

 terminate flattening, the final note of the Corn -Bunting 

 has in it a quality which has been not inaptly described 

 as resembling the sound of breaking glass or the jingling 

 of a chain. Although like a heavier Yellowhammer in 

 its build, the Corn-Bunting lacks the bright yellow of 

 its congener, the bright chestnut of the back, and the 

 white outer tail-feathers. 



GREENFINCH— 6 inches. A bird emitting a scream-like 

 note which, in the verbal description, might be con- 

 founded with the long-drawn notes of the Yellowhammer 

 and Corn-Bunting ; but the former is a single note, and 

 therefore lacks the short introductory notes which 

 precede the long, terminal note of the song of the 

 Yellowhammer. 



CIRL-BUNTING .— Form, like the Yellowhammer 



(plate 53). Length, 60 inches. Crown olive, streaked 

 with black ; upper parts chestnut-brown, with dark 

 centres to the feathers, becoming grayish towards 



