THE CIRL BUNTING. 27 



same horizontal position, with its head to the wind. In 

 action, though not in song, it is the most interesting bird 

 that inhabits the same locality. 



When the winds of autumn and winter have shaken the 

 seeds, and the floods borne down the reeds themselves, the 

 reed bunting resorts to other pastures, associating with the 

 yellow bunting and the other grain-eating birds ; and in com- 

 pany with them approaching houses and farm-yards when the 

 weather is severe. With few exceptions, indeed, the resident 

 little birds seek the neighbourhood of man in the winter, 

 and come as instinctively to pick up the grains and crumbs- 

 which would otherwise be lost near his habitation, as they 

 resort to other places, and destroy weacls and insects in aid 

 of his cultivation during the summer. 



THE GIRL BUNTING (Emleriza cirlus). 



The cirl bunting is rather a local bird in Britain, having 

 hitherto been found only in the warmer counties on the 

 Channel. Indeed, as it is confined to the southern parts of 

 the continent, it is not to be expected very far north in this. 

 country ; and it is only in those places where a southern 

 aspect, the influence of the Atlantic tides, and shelter from 

 the cold north and the blighting east, prevail, that we could 

 hope to find a bird whose principal European localities are 

 Italy and the south of France. It does not appear that 

 these birds range beyond the first ridge of hills in the south 

 of England. 



In winter, the cirl buntings associate with the yellow 

 "buntings ; and they resemble them in their manners, their 

 notes, and partially also in their appearance, only they are 

 rather smaller, their air is softer, and their colours are more 

 varied, and perhaps upon the whole finer. The voice, too, is 

 not so loud or harsh, and the chirp of the female is particu- 



