170 THE BUNTINGS 



of each. The decision, however, has at length fallen finally (using 

 the word in its precedent sense) upon E. miliaria. He it is who, in 

 this country, at any rate, where there are only a few of them, is repre- 

 sentative of the Buntings. Some silent heart-burnings there may still 

 be, but none now (I gather) dare openly question his right to the 

 dignity. 1 



I, at any rate, am not going to do so. To accept the corn-bunting 

 in the above capacity is to have an immediate opportunity of saying 

 something about him in other words of beginning, which, without 

 some such handle, is always a difficult matter. Accordingly I accept 

 him " sit mihi magnus Apollo ! " Touching the credentials upon which 

 he may most strongly rely I prefer (as before explained) not to speak, 

 and of his more general qualifications it is hardly necessary to. Few, 

 I believe, if any, will deny that he is as much every inch a bunting 

 as Lear was " every inch a king," nor is it incumbent upon him that, 

 in such mental and moral attributes as are here implied, he should 

 go beyond his fellows. That he does upon the issue that has already 

 been tried, so that in all respects, both general and particular, his claim 

 is fully made out. 



Such as he is, the corn-bunting, though by no means, in this 

 country, abundant, is yet a sufficiently familiar figure. He is also 

 a somewhat ungainly one, his general appearance, when perched 

 at a little distance, being that of a more heavily built and rather 

 overgrown sparrow. From the disgrace, however, of being ever 

 confounded (except by the quite inattentive) with a bird so much 

 his inferior, he is saved by his lighter colouring, his yellow beak, and, 

 above all, in singing time, by his song. This last has excited much 

 comment, and ornithological literature is rich in attempted descrip- 

 tions of what (which, for those who like trying, is no disadvantage) 

 would appear to be quite indescribable. A suspicion may even occur 

 to one, sometimes try as one will to force it back that there is not 

 so very much to describe ; but this is only when one listens to the song 



1 Newton, A Dictionary of Birds. 



