YELLOW BUNTING. 



thence to the shores of the Mediterranean, but not on tho 

 islands, or at most but very rarely. 



I have ventured to restore to this bird what I believe to 

 have been its first English name, Yellow Ammer, although 

 it appears to have been printed Yellow Ham, and Yellow 

 Hammer, from the days of Dr. Wm. Turner and Merrett 

 to the present time. The word Ammer is a well-known 

 German term for Bunting in very common use ; thus Bech- 

 stein employs the names Schnee-ammer, Grau-ammer, 

 Rohr-ammer, Garten-ammer, and Gold-ammer, for our 

 Snow Bunting, Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting, Ortolan, or 

 Garden Bunting, and Yellow Bunting. Prefixing the 

 letter H to the word appears to be unnecessary, and even 

 erroneous, as suggesting a notion which has no reference to 

 any known habit or quality in the bird. 



The adult male in summer has the beak of a bluish horn 

 colour ; the palatal knob less conspicuous than in the 

 Common Bunting ; the irides dark brown ; the head, 

 cheeks, ear-coverts, and nape of the neck, bright lemon- 

 yellow, varied with a few dusky black patches, that are 

 most conspicuous at the boundary of the ear-coverts ; the 

 upper part of the back and wings reddish brown, tinged 

 with yellow, each feather having a dark brown patch at its 

 centre ; the wing-primaries dusky black, with narrow ex- 

 ternal edges of bright yellow : the secondaries, tertials, and 

 both sets of wing-coverts, dusky black, broadly margined 

 with rich chestnut brown ; upper tail-coverts reddish chest- 

 nut, edged with yellow ; the central pair of tail-feathers 

 shorter than the others, and dusky black, edged with chest- 

 nut, and tinged with yellow ; the next five feathers on 

 each side dusky black ; the two outer ones on each side 

 having a broad patch of white on the inner web ; the form 

 of the tail slightly forked ; the chin, throat, breast, and 



