YELLOW BUNTING, OR YELLOW AMMEE.— £m*erfaa cUnnetta. 



eggs are five in numlDer, and their colour is white, -with a dash of very pale purple, and 

 dotted and scribhled all over with dark purple-brown. Both dots and lines are most 

 variable, and it also frequently happens that an egg ap})ears with hardly a mark upon it, 

 while others in the same nest are entirely covered with the quaint-looking decorations. 

 Generally the nest is built later than that of most small birds, but there are instances 

 when it has been completed and the five eggs laid as early as January or even 

 December. 



Both parents are strongly attached to each other and to their young, and din-iug the 

 last few days of incubation the mother bird becomes so fearless, that she will sit in her 

 nest even when she is discovered, and in some instances has even suffered herself to be 

 touched before she would leave her charge. 



About the end of autumn, all the young birds have been fully fledged, and instead of 

 haunting the hedgerows, they assemble in considerable flocks, and visit the fields in search 

 of food. In the winter, should the weather be severe, thoy become \'ery bold, and joining 

 the sparrows, and other little birds, enter the farmyards and cultivated grounds, and 

 endeavour to pick up a subsistence. When food is plentiful, the Yellow Ammer 

 becomes very fat, and in some instances is killed for the table, being thought nearly as 

 good as the celebrated ortolan, to which bird it is closely allied. 



The reader may probably have remarked, that I have called the liird Yellow Ammer, 

 and not Yellow Hammer, as is mostly the case. The correction is due to 2>h: Yarrell, who 

 well observes that, " I have ventured to restore to this bird what I believe to have been its 

 first English name, Yellow Ammer, although it apju-ars to have been jirinted Yellow 

 Ham and Yellow Hammer from the days of Drs. William Turner and jNIerrett to the 

 present time. The word Ammer is a well-known German term for Bunting, in very 

 common use. Thus Bechstein employs the names Schnee-ammer, Grau-ammer, Eohr- 

 ammer, Garten-ammer, and Gold-ammer, for our Snow Bunting, Corn Bunting, Peed 

 Bunting, Ortolan or Garden Bunting, and Yellow Bunting. Prefi.xing the letter H to the 

 word appears to be unnecessary, and even erroneous, as suggesting a notion which has no 

 reference to any known haliit or quality in tlie bird." 



