CIRL BUNTING. 521 



bridge in the winter of 1800, among flocks of Yellow 

 Buntings and Chaffinches, from which he obtained several 

 specimens of both sexes. In the following summer these 

 birds were found breeding in several localities on the coast 

 of Devonshire, and a detailed account of their habits, and 

 the mode by which the young were successfully reared, 

 was communicated to the Linnean Society by Colonel 

 Montagu, and was published in the seventh volume of the 

 Transactions of the Society. 



The Cirl Bunting is generally found on the coast, and 

 does not often appear to go far inland. In some of its 

 habits it resembles the Yellow Bunting, last described, the 

 male frequently singing from an upper branch of a tree, 

 his song resembling that of the yellow bird, but delivered 

 rather more rapidly, and without the long finishing note. 

 The female has but a single call-note. They generally 

 build in furze, or some low bush ; the nest is composed of 

 dry stalks, with a little moss, and lined with long hair and 

 fibrous roots : the eggs are four or five in number, of a dull 

 white, tinged with blue, streaked and speckled with dark 

 liver brown ; the length ten lines, by eight lines in breadth. 

 The young are hatched in thirteen or fourteen days, and 

 are supplied by the parent birds with insect food ; when 

 reared by hand, Colonel Montagu found grasshoppers most 

 serviceable, with the addition of uncooked meat finely 

 divided. Some years since, several old birds were ob- 

 served, near Brading in the Isle of Wight, to feed con- 

 stantly on the berries of the woody nightshade, Solanum 

 dulcamara ; and a paste made of these berries, mixed with 

 wheat, flour, and fine gravel, proved excellent food for 

 some of their young birds, which were reared without 

 difficulty. 



Mr. Blyth has published, in the second volume of the 

 Naturalist, some interesting notes on the habits of this 



