402 THE YELLOW BUNTING. 



grain, the former being procured in the spring and early summer, and 

 the latter in autumn and winter. As these birds assemble in large 

 (locks and are always very plentiful, they devour great quantities of 

 grain, and are consequently much persecuted by the farmer, and their 

 numbers thinned by guns, traps, nets, and all kinds of devices. Yet 

 their services in ins?ct-killing are so great as to render them most useful 

 birds to the agriculturist. A single pair of these birds have been 

 watched during a whole day, and were seen to convey to their young 

 no less than forty grubs per hour, making an average exceeding three 

 thousand in the course of the week. In every case where the Sparrows 

 have been extirpated, there has been a proportional decrease in the 

 crops from the ravages of insects. At Maine, for example, the total 

 destruction of the Sparrows was ordered by government, and the conse- 

 (juence was that in the succeeding year even the trees were killed by 

 caterpillars, and a similar occurrence took place near Auxerre. 



The nest of the Sparrow is a very inartificial structure, composed of 

 hay, straw, leaves, and various similar substances, and always filled 

 with a prodigious lining of feathers. For, although the Sparrow is as 

 hardy a bird as can be seen, and appears to care little for snow or frost, 

 it likes a warm bed to which it may retire after the toils of the day, 

 and always stuffs its resting-place full of feathers, which it gets from 

 all kinds of sources. Even the roosting-places are often crammed with 

 feathers. 



Generally the nest is built in some convenient crevice, such as an old 

 wall, especially if it be covered with ivy ; but the bird is by no means 

 particular in the choice of a locality, and will build in many other 

 situations. There are generally five eggs, though they sometimes reach 

 the number of six, and their color is grayish white, profusely covered 

 with spots and dashes of gray-brown. They are, however, extremely 

 variable, and even in the same nest it is not uncommon to find some 

 eggs that are almost black with the mottlings, while others have hardly 

 a spot about them. The Sparrow is a very prolific bird, bringing up 

 several broods in the course of a season, and has been known to rear 

 no less than fourteen young in a single breeding season. 



The Buntings are known by their sharp conical bills, with the 

 edges of the upper mandible rounded and slightly turned inward, and 

 the knob on the palate. They are common in most parts of the world, 

 are gregarious during the winter months, and in some cases become so 

 fat upon the autumn grain that they are considered great dainties. 



One of the most familiar of all these birds is the Yellow Bunting, 

 or Yellow Hammer, as it is often called. 



This lively bird frequents our fields and hedgerows, and is remark- 

 able for a curious mixture of wariness and curiosity, the latter feeling 

 mipelling it to observe a traveller with great attention, and the former 



