THE CIRL BUNTING. 113 



Saunders who found it not uncommon on the chalk-hills of Surrey, it "is placed 

 in a bank among the steins of a hazel or other bush, though sometimes in furze, 

 or juniper, at a little distance from the ground." My nests were all found within 

 a foot or two above the earth, the first in a stunted furze-bush tangled with a 

 blackberry vine, two others in low juniper scrub overrun with bramble, and the 

 fourth in a young hawthorn bush. 



The nest is tolerably compact internally, though externally somewhat loosely 

 put together, the outer wall usually consisting of coarse dead grass, bents, and 

 vegetable fibre ; the lining of fine fibre and black horse-hair : occasionally a little 

 moss is said to be used in the lining ; but this material is rarely used by any of 

 the British Buntings. The eggs number from four to five (my nests contained 

 respectively four, four, three, and two eggs) and are often somewhat broader than 

 those of the Yellow Hammer, they are white, generally very faintly tinged with 

 lilac ; streaked, spotted, and dotted with purplish black, especially towards the 

 larger end ; with small, and frequently indistinct lilacine greyish shell-spots. The 

 markings often terminate in round blots ; and, occasionally, some of the streaks 

 are chocolate. Seebohm describes an abnormal nest in his collection as " somewhat 

 loosely put together, and made externally of various plant-stems, blades of grass, 

 roots, and quantities of dead leaves. It is lined with one or two scraps of rnoss, 

 a few pieces of fine grass, and a great quantity of short hair." 



The eggs of the Cirl Bunting vary much less than those of the Yellow 

 Bunting ; but Seebohm states that some of them have a greenish-white ground- 

 tint. 



Lord Lilford says : " The few nests I have met with were all placed on steep 

 banks by the side of a road or footway, amongst low bushes and herbage, and 

 were built of moss and grass-stalks, with a lining of cow's hair." 



Herr Gatke (Birds of Heligoland, p. 371) states that he has only twice 

 obtained this Bunting on the island ; he gives Zaunammer as the German trivial 

 name of the species; but Von Homeyer (in the Gefiederte Welt, 1891, p. 444) 

 applies this name to Emberiza cia, using the term Zippammcr (used for the Meadow 

 Bunting alone by Gatke) in a generic sense. If two such distinct species as 

 Emberiza cirlus and E. cia are each called "The Hedge Bunting" by well-known 

 writers, the confusion respecting them is likely to be as fruitful of mischief as the 

 incorrect application of the trivial name of Black-headed Bunting to Emberiza 

 schtxniclns has been in England. 



The food of this species is similar to that of its congeners ; consisting largely 

 of grasshoppers, beetles, moths, caterpillars, and spiders, during the breeding- 

 season ; but in autumn and winter, of various seeds and grain. In confinement 



