304 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



immobility when the bird sits invisible among the 

 leaves, marking the time with those excessively sharp, 

 metallic clicks and wails like a machine-bird, to unex- 

 pected, sudden, brilliant activity. 



When not warned into silence and immobility by the 

 parent the young cirls are clamorous enough, crying to 

 be fed, and these, too, have voices of an excessive sharp- 

 ness. Of other native species the sharpest hunger-cries 

 that I know are those of the tits, especially the long- 

 tailed tit, and the spotted fly-catcher ; but these sounds 

 are not comparable hi brain-piercing acuteness to those 

 of the young cirls. 



Another thing I have wondered at in a creature of so 

 quiet a disposition as the cirl bunting is the extra- 

 ordinary violence of the male towards other small birds 

 when by chance they come near his young, in or out of 

 the nest. So jealous is he that he will attack a willow- 

 wren or a dunnock with as much fury as other birds 

 use only towards the most deadly enemies of their 

 young. 



Here, by the Itchen, where we have all four buntings, 

 I find that the reed bunting called black-head or black- 

 top is, after the cirl, the latest singer. He continues 

 when, towards the end of August, the corn bunting and 

 yellow-hammer become silent. He is the poorest singer 

 of the bunting tribe, the first part of his song being like 

 the chirp of an excited sparrow, somewhat shriller, and 

 then follows the long note, shrill too, or sibilant and 

 tremulous. It is more like the distressful hunger-call 



