98 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



parts of Britain. In our own neighbourhood its eggs are 

 as plentiful as those of the Chaffinch or Hedge Sparrow. 

 Its nest is well described as "generally placed on some 

 bank amidst herbage or brush, by the roots of a hedge, 

 or other cover." It is composed externally of grasses, 

 mingled perhaps with roots and moss, though, we think, 

 with little of the latter, and chiefly lined with hair. The 

 eggs, with all their marked peculiarity and apparent same- 

 ness, seem ever new and beautiful ; they are usually pale in 

 the ground-colour, but clouded, streaked, and scribbled 

 over with delicate and playful lines, and here and there a 

 bolder dash and spot of purple-brown. Excepting that 

 of the Girl Bunting, which is far less common, there is no 

 other egg, as Mr. Hewitson remarks, which can be mis- 

 taken for that of the Yellow Hammer. The eggs are from 

 three to five in number, rarely six. (PL VII. fig. 40.) 



THE GIRL BUNTING. Emberiza cirlus. This bird, not so 

 brilliant in its plumage as the last species, and immediately 

 distinguishable from it by the dark blackish-green colour of 

 the throat, is not nearly so frequent in its occurrence as the 

 Yellow Hammer. In some localities however it is much 

 more abundant than in others, but is little known in Scot- 

 land or in Ireland. Its nest, composed of very similar 



