THE CIRL-BUNTING 119 



garbling, so clear and full, -which has some resemblance to that of the 

 yellowhammer, only that the last notes are much deeper. 



Ever since ortolans have been known to epicures as a delicacy, they have 

 been fattened with great care. The common way is to keep them in a 

 room only lighted by lanterns, so that they cannot distinguish day from 

 night : they are then plentifully fed on oats, millet, and the crumb of 

 white bread, made up with good spice. In a short time they become so 

 fat that they would be suffocated if not killed at once. An ortolan thus 

 fed is a perfect ball of most delicious fat, weighing about three ounces. 



THE CIRL-BUNTING, Lath. 



Emberiza Cirlus, Linn^us ; Le Zizi, ou Bruant de Haie, Buffon ; Der Zau- 

 nammer, Bechstein. 



LiNN.s:us has described only the female, and by mistake I 

 have called the male Emherizal Ecpathorax^ and have given a 

 drawing of it and the female, in the second volume of my 

 German translation of the English work of Latham, Synopsis 

 of Birds, printed at Nuremberg, 1794. 



Description. — This bird, scarce in many provinces of Germany and iii 

 Britain, but well known in Thuringia, is about the size of the yellowham- 

 mer, being five inches and a half in length, of which the tail measures two 

 and a half. Its small and flattish beak is of a brownish blue on the upper 

 part, and light brown on the under ; the feet, eight lines in height, are 

 flesh-coloured ; the upper part of the head and neck olive green with small 

 black strokes, a golden yellow streak extends from the angle of the upper 

 mandible to the middle of the neck, passing under the eyes ; another begins 

 from the angle of the under mandible, and descending in a straight line, is 

 crossed by a third, which is black, then curving round behind the yellow 

 streak under the eyes, reunites with the black one on the throat ; the back 

 and smaller wing-coverts are cinnamon brown, mixed with black and yellow 

 green ; the rump is olive, with black streaks ; the breast is a fine olive 

 green, light chestnut on the sides ; the rest of the under part of the body is 

 of a golden yellow. 



The female is known by its plumage being much paler: the head and 

 upper part of the neck are olive, much streaked with black ; the back is 

 pale brown, the rump more streaked with black, the tail rather greyisli 

 black than black ; two pale yellow lines pass one above the other below the 

 eyes, and cross a blark line which unites to the black border of the cheeks ; 

 the throat is brownisb, with a lighter spot below ; the breast is olive, with 

 the sides brownish, the rest of the under part of the body is pale yellow. 



The young ones, before their first moulting, have the upper part of the 

 body light brown, speckled with black, the under pale yellow streaked with 

 black ; the older they grow the more of an olive tint the breast acquires. 



Habitation. — In their wild state these birds dwell chiefly in the south- 

 cm and temperate parts of Europe, where they frequent orchards, groves,- 



