EMBERIZID^. 167 



many other of the grain- and seed-eating birds, 

 partially useful and partially mischievous : the use- 

 fulness probably in this, as in many other cases, 

 more than counterbalancing the mischief. On this 

 balance most of our small birds have to be judged, 

 and it is as useless for the zealous defender of 

 small birds to affirm, as he often does, that they do 

 no mischief at all, as it is for the gardener and the 

 promoter of Sparrow Clubs to affirm that they do 

 nothing but mischief: a case can almost always be 

 proved against either. 



This bird will, like the Common Bunting, extract 

 grain out of ricks, especially loosely and carelessly 

 built ones, by pulling at the end of the straw until 

 it pulls it out ear and all : in a well-built rick the 

 mischief done in this way is very slight, as the 

 straws are too close and firm in the rick to be 

 pulled out without breaking. The principal mis- 

 chief it does to the farmer is in eating the corn 

 growing near the hedges before it is cut : as a set-off 

 to this, it eats a great quantity of seeds of various 

 weeds, and in the spring and early summer the food 

 of the old birds, as well as of the young brood, con- 

 sists almost entirely of insects. 



The Yellowhammer is easily kept in confinement, 

 .and becomes very tame. It is not, as a rule, an 

 early breeder ; but exceptions to this rule occasion- 

 ally occur, one of which was mentioned in the April 

 number of * Eyes and No Eyes.' 



