220 THE CIEL BUNTING. 



It should be provided with plenty of food and water, so as to 

 deceive the wild birds into the belief that they see one of 

 their comrades in a place of abundance. This kind of decoy 

 bird is often more useful than any other. The call of the Or- 

 tolan is tzvit, tzvit ! gye, gye ! gay, gay I pek, pek I 



Attractive Qualities. Not only. the beautiful shape and plu- 

 mage of the Ortolan render it valuable in the eyes of the ama- 

 teur, but also its clear and flute-like song, which resembles 

 that of the Yellowhammer, except that the concluding notes 

 are a tone or two lower. 



These birds have long been known, and fattened as a great 

 delicacy. For this purpose they are generally kept in a room 

 artificially lighted, so that there may be no distinction between 

 night and day, and fed with oats, millet, and bread, mixed 

 with good spice. On this diet they soon become mere lumps 

 of fat, of about three ounces in weight, and would indeed 

 be suffocated by their own fat, if not killed at once. 



ADDITIONAL. This is sometimes called the Greenheaded Bun- 

 ting ; it occurs in this country only as a straggler ; it was first 

 figured by BROWN, in his Illustrations of Zoology, from a 

 living specimen, which was taken in Mary-le-bone Fields by a 

 London bird-catcher ; another specimen was taken at sea, a few 

 miles off the Yorkshire coast ; and two others, one killed near 

 Manchester, and the other taken near London, make up about 

 the sum of those which English naturalists have had an oppor- 

 tunity of examining. 



94. THE CIEL BUNTING. 



Male. Emberiza Elacathorax, BECH. Female. Emberiza Cirlus, LIN. 

 Eruant de Haye, BUF. Der Zaunammer, BECH. 



Description. This bird, which is rare in many parts of Ger- 

 many, but common in Thuringia, is almost as large as a Yel- 

 lowhammer, being five inches and a half in length, of which 

 the tail measures two inches and a half. The beak is small, 

 much compressed : on the upper mandible brownish blue, on 

 the lower light brown ; the feet eight lines in height, and 

 flesh-colour. The upper part of the head and neck are olive 

 green, marked with small black stripes ; and a bright yellow 

 streak runs from the upper corner of the beak, beneath the 

 eyes, to the middle of the neck. A second streak runs down 

 from tho corner of the lower mandible, which is crossed by a 



