188 THE BUNTINGS 



several feet." 1 Some recent observations of my own, in Brittany, 

 would incline me to think that this distinction exists only in the 

 United Kingdom. For instance, out of six nests of the yellow- 

 hammer, found by me, not one touched the ground, the different 

 heights above it of five of these being as follows viz., 2 feet, 18 inches 

 to 2 feet, 7 to 12 inches, 10 inches, and 7 to 8 inches. The sixth I 

 was not able to measure, but I feel sure it was no nearer the ground 

 than the last one, at any rate. As against this, two cirl-buntings' 

 nests, situated, the one in a gorse-bush, the other in an alder-bush, 

 were respectively about 18 inches and some 4 feet from the ground, 

 the latter being exceptionally placed, and therefore no criterion. 

 Other differences which are supposed to exist between the habits of 

 the two birds, in England, I have also been unable to observe in 

 Brittany. The cirl-bunting, for instance, is always said to be more 

 arboreal than the yellow-hammer, but I have not seen the smallest 

 trace of such a distinction. Both habitually sit in trees often in 

 high trees and certainly the yellow-hammer, as an individual, is not 

 to be seen in undergrowth, or hopping about on the ground, in the 

 least degree oftener than is the cirl-bunting. 



In fact, beyond their appearance and note, I have not myself 

 seen anything clearly to differentiate the two species, and doubt if 

 there be a habit possessed by either, not equally common to the other 

 also. As for what is called the song of the cirl-bunting, the truth 

 was, I think, exhausted by Bailly when he said that it was a prolonged 

 " zeereereereereeree," always in one tone, and that it "imitated, a little, 

 the shrilling of a large, green grasshopper" 2 though I am aware 

 that very much more has been said since. What surprises me is that 

 there are those who will speak of the performance as though the bird 

 were really an artiste. Scientifically, no doubt, looking, that is to 

 say, at the meaning and effect of the utterance, the cirl-bunting 

 sings as much as does the thrush or nightingale, but otherwise the 



1 British Birds, February 1908. 



2 Ornithologie de la Savoie, iii. p. 267. 



