YELLOW BUNTING. 43 



PA SSERE8. EM BERIZID &. 



EMBERIZA CITRINELLA, Linnaeus*. 



THE YELLOW BUNTING. 



Emberiza citrinella. 



THIS handsome bird is one of our commonest species, and 

 is conspicuous, in summer particularly, by frequenting almost 

 every hedge-row or furzy common, flying from one low tree 

 to another, or from bush to bush, in front of the by-passer. 

 The brilliancy of the cock's plumage might claim for the 

 Yellow Hammerf , to use its best-known name, much greater 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 309 (1766). 



f In former Editions of this work the Author strove to restore what he 

 believed to have been the first English name of this bird Yellow Ammer. As 

 might be expected in such a case, custom, whether right or wrong, would not give 

 way to the proposed amendment, and Yellow Hammer, with its abbreviation Yellow 

 Ham, have been commonly printed from the days of Turner (1544) and Merrett 

 (1667) to the present time. There can indeed be no question of " Hammer " (in 

 this sense) being strictly cognate with the German Ammer, but it would seem 

 that prefixing the letter H to the word is not wholly an English peculiarity, since 

 there is some ground for believing that Hammer, which now survives in Hdm- 

 merling, was equally with Ammer a Teutonic form. Another early spelling of 

 this word in both languages was " Amber," used in 1668 by Charleton (Onoma- 



