GIRL-BUNTING. 51 



in confinement, was communicated to the Linnean Society 

 by Montagu (Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. pp. 276-280). 



The Girl-Bunting is generally found near the south coast, 

 and with us is everywhere very local. In most of its habits 

 it resembles the Yellow Bunting, but is more shy and un- 

 obtrusive, and even where it is pretty plentiful is far less 

 easily observed from its chiefly frequenting the tops of higher 

 trees, particularly elms, whence the male may be heard 

 singing, and some patience is often required to obtain a sight 

 of the bird upon the upper branch of a tall, leafy tree. The 

 song is tremulous and resembles that of the commoner species, 

 but is uttered rather more quickly, and wants the long final 

 note, so that no one once acquainted with it ought to mistake 

 it. It is more habitually delivered in the afternoon than at 

 any other time of the day, and is continued till the middle 

 or end of August, or even later. The female has but a 

 single call-note. The nest is generally composed of bents, 

 placed in situations similar to those chosen by the Yellow 

 Bunting, and is seldom far from the clump or row of elms 

 which the male affects while singing. In structure it 

 often varies, some examples being chiefly built of green moss 

 lined with hair, while others are lined with fibrous roots. 

 The eggs are four or five in number, of a dull white, tinged 

 with bluish-grey, spotted, blotched and veined with dark 

 liver-brown, almost black, the markings being mostly very 

 well defined, and among them are generally patches of pale 

 lavender; they measure from *96 to *8 by from '67 to '61 

 in. The young when hatched are supplied by the parents 

 almost solely with grasshoppers, and the discovery of this 

 fact ensured Montagu's success in treating those which he 

 took from the nest. More recently several old birds were 

 observed, near Brading in the Isle of Wight, to feed con- 

 stantly on the berries of the woody nightshade, Solanum 

 dulcamara ; and a paste made of these, mixed with wheat, 

 flour and fine gravel, proved excellent food for some of the 

 young, which were reared without difficulty. Blyth in the 

 course of some admirable notes on the habits of this bird 

 (Nat. ii. p. 342), states that he has found the remains of 



