Their Eggs and Nests. 1 09 



CIRL BUNTING— (£';;/^m^^ cirlus), 



French Yellow Hammer, Black-throated Yellow 

 Hammer. — A bird long overlooked by our native 

 ornithologists, and perhaps more frequently occurring 

 than is even yet suspected. Still it is by no means a 

 common bird, — though identified as occurring in, per- 

 haps, most of the southern counties. The Rev. Orpen 

 Morris, from whose work on British Birds and Eggs I 

 have taken the two provincial names given above, says, 

 " the nest is placed in furze or low bushes, and is 

 usually made of dry stalks of grass and a little moss, 

 lined with hair and small roots. Some are wholly 

 without moss or hair . . . the small roots constituting 

 the lining. The eggs are four or five in number, of a 

 dull, bluish white, streaked and speckled with dark 

 brown. They vary much in colour and markings." — 

 Fig. ^, plate IV. 



ORTOLAN BUNTING— (^w/^m>^ hortulaiia). 



Ortolan, Green-headed Bunting. — Merely an occa- 

 sional visitor nesting in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, 

 and Lapland. 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING— (£«.y//>^ 



melanocepJiaki). 



Its occurrence reported once only in Englando 



