BUNTINGS. 



525 



nearly straight, sides convex, edges inflected, the tip acute ; the 

 lower mandible has the angle short, broad, and rounded. In the 

 palate is a hard, bony knob to bruise the seed which forms 

 their principal food. Their general habitat is the fields and 

 hedges upon the margin of woods ; some few species haunt the 

 banks of rivers. They build their nests on the ground, or on 

 low bushes, and in this they deposit four or five eggs. The young, 

 when hatched, are blue. Their plumage is deficient in brilliancy, 



Fig. 235. The Reed Bunting ( Emberiza 

 schomiclus, Yarrell). 



Fig. 236. The Cirl Bunting (Emberiza 

 cirlus, Yarrell). 



but their song is not without attractions. In autumn, when 

 they leave the colder regions to go south, fattened with the rich 

 produce of the harvest-fields, they have a rich, delicate flavour, 

 and are then in France eagerly sought after for the table, and 

 frequently brought to market along with Larks and Ortolans. 



The Buntings are divided into the Buntings properly so called, 

 in which the claw of the back toe is short and hooked, and the 

 Spurred or Lark Buntings (Plectropkanes, Meyer), in which it is 

 long, straight, compressed, and slightly arched. To the first of 



