THE COM310N BUNTING. 21 



lie lacks in quality he labours to make up in quantity, as lie 

 will sometimes sit for hours repeating his chatter, without 



once changing his position. 



i 



THE COMMON BUNTING (Emberiza miliaria). 



Though not so elegant in its form or so gay in its plumage, 

 the common bunting is a larger, and, as it would seem, a 

 hardier bird than the yellow. 



The common bunting is about seven inches and a half in 

 length, and eleven and a quarter in the stretch of the wings. 

 It is a thick and rather heavy-looking bird, and weighs about 

 two ounces. The centres of the feathers on the whole upper 

 part are blackish brown, margined with olive colour on the 

 body, and yellowish brown on the coverts and quills. The 

 tail dusky, less produced, and more forked, than that of the 

 yellow bunting. Under part straw colour, with numerous 

 triangular dusky spots, except on the middle of the belly. 

 An obscure straw-coloured streak from the gape down the 

 side of the neck, and the space on the eye and ear having a 

 dull patch of the same, with obscure dusky spots on the ear 

 covert. Bill bluish black on the exterior or upper ridge, 

 straw coloured the rest, very conical and having the palatal 

 knob large. Irides and feet brown, the latter with a tinge 

 of red. The colours of the female differ little from those 

 of the male ; but the general tint of both is subject to variety, 

 being in some instances nearly black, and in others inclining 

 to grey. 



In the spring and summer, the common bunting is very 

 decidedly a corn-field bird, and does not frequent the wilds, 

 or even the pasture lands and copses. The cry of the male 

 (for it is a screech and not a song) is uttered from the top 

 of a hedge or of some tall herbaceous stem, rarely if ever 

 from a tree ; and like the former species he is not sparing of 

 his harsh and jarring voice. The nest is among tall herbage, 



