EMBERIZID^E. 



or five eggs, which are very large in proportion to her own 

 size. During the whole time of incubation, the male, 

 perched on some dead twig in the neighbourhood, repeats 

 with little intermission his monotonous song. The young 

 'are fed on caterpillars, grasshoppers, small beetles, and 

 other insects ; the destruction of which is considered, and 

 with reason, to be most beneficial to the vines, as each pair 

 of birds rears two, and sometimes three broods in the year. 

 The breeding season ended, Ortolans keep together, in small 

 family parties of five or six, until the end of August and 

 beginning of September, when they prepare to migrate. 

 They are now fit to be caught for the table, and are cap- 

 tured in vast quantities by the fowler's net. But the Or- 

 tolan of the epicure is a creation of art ; so before the poor 

 creatures are immolated they are submitted to a process of 

 fattening. They are shut up in a room lighted by lamps 

 kept constantly burning, and are plentifully supplied with 

 a paste made of millet, flour, and water. The wretched 

 birds, unable to distinguish day from night, have nothing 

 to do but to eat and drink, and thus, in about a fortnight, 

 become so fat, that to anticipate their dying from repletion 

 it becomes necessary to kill them : they are then packed 

 in small casks and sent to Paris. Numbers of these birds 

 are annually sent to Leadenhall Market from Spain, twenty 

 or thirty in a cage. The Ortolan, when captured, weighs 

 about an ounce and a half ; but when fattened, three ounces. 

 In appearance, the Ortolan most resembles the Girl Bunting, 

 but may be distinguished by its tail, the two outer feathers 

 of which are white, the rest black ; and by the greenish 

 tint of its head and throat, from which it is sometimes 

 called the Green-headed Bunting. 



