310 CIRL BUNTING. 



in many respects, to resemble the last in its man- 

 ners, in some districts being more partial to trees 

 than the lower hedges and brushwood. The nest 

 is said to be generally placed in a furze bush, and 

 is composed of materials similar to that of the 

 last, and, indeed, of all our British species. 

 During the season of incubation, and most of the 

 summer, the food is partly insects, grasshoppers 

 being a large portion ; berries of various kinds 

 seem also to be frequently eaten, and there, in 

 one instance mentioned, where those of solanum 

 dulcamara were much fed upon. 



The throat of this species is of a dark blackish 

 green, which immediately distinguishes it from 

 the Common Yellow Bunting ; a streak of the 

 same colour passes through the eye and under 

 the auriculars, and the intervening spaces with a 

 streak over the eye, and a gorget under the dark 

 throat, are of a delicate primrose yellow ; crown 

 of the head and nape yellowish gray, with the 

 centre of the feathers black ; feathers on the back 

 orange brown, dark in the centre, and having 

 paler margins ; scapulars reddish orange ; wings 

 blackish brown ; the secondaries edged with 

 brownish orange ; the quills narrowly, with 

 greenish gray ; tail umber brown, edged on the 

 outec webs with greenish gray, that of the outer 

 feather nearly pure white, and having a portion 

 of the inner web of the two entire feathers also 

 white ; the breast is greenish gray, forming a band 

 across, and running up upon the sides of the 

 neck ; this is followed by brownish orange, which 



