146 



THE NATURE BOOK 



a 



•ir5»f^. 



YOUNG CHAFFINCHES. 



MALE CHAFFINCH AT 

 NEST CONTAINING 

 YOUNG. 



worms pressed 

 out of the ground by 

 the footsteps of the 

 cattle, and the insects 

 attracted by their 

 bodies and their drop- 

 pings. I add such remarks as these be- 

 cause they bear upon our subject " How 

 to know the Birds," by enabhng us to 

 anticipate what species we may expect to 

 come across at certain times and under 

 certain circumstances. 



Our local Norfolk name of " Thick- 

 headed Lark " for the Common or Corn 

 Bunting, the largest and most soberly 

 clad of its species, may give an inkling 

 as to the derivation of the word " Bunt- 

 ing." For this family are not only Lark- 

 like in size — the Corn Bunting is so in 

 plumage also — but with their less sharply 

 pointed beaks and less delicately elongated 

 bodies, they carry their heads more closely 

 tucked into their shoulders, which gives 

 them a comparatively " bunted," or 

 stunted appearance. Though the alter- 



nate name of Corn Bunting would sug- 

 gest a resident of arable land pure and 

 simple, this bird not infrequently breeds 

 on the confines of marsh-land. Like 

 the Lark, it is very fond of a dust bath, 

 and may, therefore, often be noticed on 

 roadside fences ; and where telegraph 

 wires are present it, together with Yellow 

 Hammer and Stonechat, frequently avails 

 itself of them as a perch from whence to 

 pour forth its reiterated and unmelodious 

 song, which Mr. Dixon has aptly rendered 

 by the words " See-see-see-I-I — I'm-he- 

 r-r-re." Like the other Buntings, it is 

 somewhat sedentary in summer, and 

 seldom strays far from its nest, which is 

 built on the ground. Typical of the 

 species also are the eggs of the Corn 

 Bunting, which are streaked with clearly 

 defined black markings upon 

 a more or less pale lilac 

 ground — for this reason the 

 name of 

 "Writing 

 Lark" or 

 " Scribbling 

 Finch" has 

 been given 

 to both the 

 Corn and 

 Yellow 

 Buntings. 

 The short 

 and appar- 

 ently laboured flight of the Corn 

 Bunting is distinctive in that the 

 legs are carried dangling down 

 below the body, and not stretched 

 out straight behind, or gathered up into 

 the breast feathers, as is the general rule. 

 The well-known and far more widely 

 distributed Yellow Hammer better de- 

 serves the title of Common Bunting ; its 

 abstemious and economical song about 

 "a little bit o' bread and no cheese" — 

 with much stress upon the latter item — 

 is familiar throughout the country, and 

 its presence may as surely be expected 

 where the golden gorse grows, as the 

 Yellow Wagtail may certainly be looked 

 for where the same-hued Marsh Marigold, 

 and later on the Yellow Iris, abound.' 

 However monotonous the Yellow Ham- 

 mer's song may be, it is especially welcome 

 when we hear it in early spring before the 

 regular migrant songsters have arrived^ 



