132 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



YELLOW BUNTING. 



Emberiza citrinella ; Bruant jaune ; Goldammer. 



Yellow Hammer ; Yellow Yoldring ; Yellow Yorling ; 

 Writing Lark. 



Beak, horn-colour ; legs and claws, brown ; head, 

 neck, and breast, bright lemon-yellow ; back and wings, 

 reddish-brown, with dark patches ; tail-coverts, yellow ; 

 central tail-feathers, short and black. The colours of 

 the female are much duller, and reddish-brown pre- 

 dominates. Length, six inches and a half. 



If this were not one of our most common birds, it 

 would be thought one of our most beautiful ; almost as 

 plentiful, however, as the Sparrow or Chaffinch, it is for 

 this reason held in slender estimation. 



Mr. Stevenson, in his Birds of Norfolk, says : " Though 

 resident with us at all seasons, the Yellow Bunting 

 seems more particularly associated with the recollection 

 of heat and dust, its long-drawn, weary song accords so 

 well with the dry, scorching atmosphere ; and through 

 a strange ventriloquial power, possessed by this bird in 

 an eminent degree, its notes are heard from a distance 

 as though close to the ear of the listener, and when 

 apparently farthest off, are not unfrequently uttered 

 within a few yards." 



Meyer, in his British Birds, speaks of the Yellow 

 Bunting as an unrivalled ventriloquist, and mentions an 

 instance in which the note of a bird caged in a room 

 was supposed to be the answering song of a bird in the 

 garden outside, even by those close to the cage. He 



