The Yellow Bunting 



Britain, and is often known as the Yellow Hammer, the 

 latter word being a corruption of " Ammer," the German 

 word for a Bunting. 



THE CIRL BUNTING 



Emberiza cirlus, Linnaeus 



This species is very similar to the Yellow Bunting in habits 

 and plumage, from which it may be most easily distinguished 

 by the black throat and a black line through the eye. In 

 our islands, however, it is very local and chiefly confined to 

 the southern counties, but stragglers have been met with 

 as far north as Yorkshire. 



Although frequenting the hedgerows and open country 

 it delights in trees, uttering its song from the higher 

 branches of some hedgerow elm. 



The nest is placed near the ground and constructed of 

 similar materials to that of the Yellow Bunting, but the eggs 

 differ in having the markings bolder and chiefly restricted to 

 the larger end, and the hair lines, so numerous on those of 

 the former species, are much fewer in number. Two broods 

 are reared in the season, the young birds being fed on 

 grasshoppers and insects, and the rest of the year is spent 

 in the fields in company with other flocks of Finches. 



The male has the top of the head and nape and rump 

 greyish green, streaked with darker. Wing coverts and 

 feathers of the mantle deep reddish brown with dark median 

 spot or streak and broad light margins. Wing and tail 

 dark brown. Cheeks yellow with black line through the 



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