EM BE 



are lighter coloured, the throat of the young male 

 birds, before they have done moulting:, is of a light 

 yellow, with a mixture of grey; the breast and belly are 

 of a reddish yellow, speckled with grey, which make 

 them rather resemble young yellowhammers. A bird- 

 fancier will distinguish the two sexes even in the nest. 

 There are white, yellow, speckled, and in the house 

 sometimes even black varieties. 



Though this bird is not found in Groat Britain, it 

 occurs in man}' parts of Europe, as Italy, Fiance, 

 Germany, and even Sweden, migrating in spring and 

 autumn, when great quantities of them are caught, 

 and fattened for the market, being proverbially cele- 

 brated for the delicacy of their flavour. That they 

 may more speedily acquire the requisite degree of 

 plumpness, they are shut up in a room, from which 

 the external light is excluded, but in which are placed 

 a few lanterns, to enable them to see to run about, 

 and pick up the millet and oats that are regularly 

 strewed on the floor. Under this regimen they soon 

 get so fat, that they would speedily die if not removed 

 by the dealers. It is pretended that those from the 

 plains of Toulouse are superior to those of Italy. In 

 some districts of the latter country, where they are 

 plentiful, as, for example, in Lombardy, they are not 

 only prepared for the table but trained to sing; and 

 Saserne observes, that there is considerable sweetness 

 in their song. If allowed to associate, especially 

 when young, with other birds, they adopt some of 

 their notes. The female makes her nest in a low 

 hedge, or a vine, or on the ground, especially among 

 corn, composing it carelessly of plants, mixed with 

 leaves and dry or urecn rushes. She lays four or five 

 greyish eggs, with a very pale tinge of purple, and 

 sprinkled with very small blackish spots. They gene- 

 rally have two broods in the year. 

 ; In spring these birds are easily attracted to a decoy 

 bush by a female of their own species, or a yellow- 

 hammer. In August a turfy place should be chosen 

 near brambles to form a small area as a decoy, like 

 that made for chaffinches. It must be surrounded 

 with a low hedge, with some oat ears fastened to it. 

 About the area should be placed one or several call 

 birds, especially a perching bird, that is to say, a bird 

 of the same species, with a band of soft leather round 

 it, and confined by a small string fastened to a peg- 

 stick in the ground, which prevents its going beyond 

 the limits prescribed. Then it should be given plenty 

 of food and water, in order that the birds to be caught 

 may be the more easily attracted within the area, 

 from seeing one of their own species in a place of 

 abundance. This kind of decoy bird is often more 

 necessary than any other. 



The fine form and colours of the ortolan would be 

 quite sufficient to render it desirable, but still more so 

 its melodious flute-like warbling, so clear and full, 

 which has some resemblance to that of the yellow- 

 hammer, only that ihe last notes are much deeper. 



THE SNOW BUNTING (E. nivalis). 



This bird is 



known by many popular names, such as the " snow 

 bunting,"" " snow flake," and " snow bird," and has 

 been sadly in the way of those who do not combine 

 a little knowledge o'f the principles of ornithology 

 with the mere observation of individual birds. It has 

 got several trivial names expressive of differences of 

 colour ; and it has been specifically called a lark, and 

 also a finch. In reality this is a polar bird, and in- 

 habits the arctic zone in both continents, and though 

 not a mountain top bird, like our ptarmigan, yet 



RIZA. 419 



subject, from the higher latitudes of which it is a na- 

 tive, to greater extremes of seasons than that, it is also 

 subject to similar changes in its plumage. And further, 

 though it does not migrate very far to the south- 

 ward, it is a wandering bird ; it does not change its 

 plumage so regularly or so completely as the flocks 

 that migrate, as the ptarmigan which summer and 

 winter in the same places do, upon the tops of the 

 mountains, even of the comparatively low latitude. 



There is something in this well worthy the atten- 

 tion of those who wish to study the adaptation of 

 animals to those circumstances in which they are 

 placed ; and if this is not attended to. we name and 

 describe the species, and arrange them into system?, 

 to very little purpose. The mountaineer, whether it 

 be bird or any thing else, does not quit its mountains, 

 or at all events it does not range to a very great dis- 

 tance from them, or wholly quit the country in which 

 they are situated ; and this holds true of man as well 

 as of the other animals. It matters not what may be 

 the part of the world, for if we are any where to find 

 the aborigines, we must seek for them in the moun- 

 tains. In the Pyrennees, the Alps, the Caucasus, 

 and in short every lofty ridge that we can name, we 

 find people who have outlived all the changes on the 

 plains. While too the animals of the low lying places 

 are driven before the weather, the mountaineers keep 

 their ground, and, to enable them to do so, they of 

 course are much more changed, especially in their 

 covering, than animals which, from their migratory 

 habits, are able to endure the milder climates into 

 which they migrate, without those seasonal adapta- 

 tions. 



When the violence of the polar winter sets in, it of 

 course whelms the pastures of these birds completely 

 under snow. They are, however, very irregular in 

 the periods at which they come on in different years, 

 and also in their violence. Of course the snow bunt- 

 ings do not leave their native north until the winter 

 comes, that is, till the snow comes, for the clear black 

 frost often continues for a considerable time before 

 the heavy falls of snow. In consequence of this, the 

 snow buntings appear in the more southerly parts of 

 their range, in very different plumages, according as 

 they come earlier or later, and this seems to be the 

 chief reason why they have got so many names, such 

 as the tawny bunting', the pied finch, the white lark, 

 and several others. 



In the summer these birds inhabit the rocks and 

 peat-covered tracks of the extreme north, where they 

 subsist upon the seeds of rushes and other hardy 

 plants ; and the produced claws on the hind toes 

 enable them to run on the soft or moss-covered sur- 

 faces with more facility than they could do if these 

 appendages were short ; but in proportion as this 

 structure fits them for walking upon these surfaces, it 

 disqualifies them for perching upon trees. But there 

 are few or no trees in their native country; and when 

 they migrate to the south, they are ground birds 

 rather than perchers. 



When they appear upon our shores, they prefer 

 those places which are most of a polar character ; 

 they do not affect the woodlands, neither do they re- 

 sort to the neighbourhood of houses, or even to the 

 cultivated fields, as is the case with our native birds 

 in the winter. They linger on the cold moors or 

 their margins, and as such places are not very tempt- 

 ing in the season of snow-buntings, it is probable that 

 few are seen in proportion to the numbers which visit 

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