274 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



between Romsey and Winchester, a cock cirl bunting 

 in fine plumage flew up before me and perched on the 

 wire of a roadside fence. It was a welcome encounter, 

 and, alighting, I stood for some time watching him. I 

 did not know that I was in a district where this pretty 

 species is more numerous than in any other place in 

 England as common, in fact, as the universal yellow- 

 hammer, and commoner than the more local corn 

 bunting. Here in July and August, in the course of an 

 afternoon's walk, in any place where there are trees and 

 grass fields, one can count on hearing half-a-dozen birds 

 sing, every one of them probably the parent of a nest 

 full of young. For this is the cirl bunting's pleasant 

 habit. He assists in feeding and safeguarding the 

 young, even as other songsters do who cease singing 

 when this burden is laid upon them ; but he is a bird of 

 placid disposition, and takes his task more quietly than 

 most ; and, after returning from the fields with several 

 grasshoppers in his throat and beak and feeding his 

 fledglings, he takes a rest, and at intervals in the day 

 flies to his favourite tree, and repeats his blithe little 

 song half-a-dozen times. 



The song is not quite accurately described in the 

 standard ornithological works as exactly like that of the 

 yellow-hammer, only without the thin, drawn-out note at 

 the end, and therefore inferior the little bit of bread, but 

 without the cheese. It certainly resembles the yellow- 

 hammer's song, being a short note, a musical chirp, 

 rapidly repeated several times. But the yellow-hammer 



