188 Emlerizidce. 



Buntings/ though I cannot find that he assigns any reason for 

 the name. 



74. COMMON BUNTING (Embcriza miliaria}. 



Though extremely common, especially in the vast tracts of 

 arable land on our downs, this bird, from its great similarity of 

 plumage to the Skylark, is seldom recognised by ordinary ob- 

 . servers ; and yet its more bulky shape and heavier gait and more 

 awkward flight should at once distinguish it from its more 

 sprightly companion. It has little or no song, but may be seen 

 perched on the topmost spray of some low hedge, uttering its 

 somewhat harsh screaming note. It is the largest of the family, 

 and remains with us throughout the year; but though some are 

 undoubtedly resident, their ranks are augmented every year by 

 the arrival of large flocks of migrants. 'During the pairing 

 season,' says Professor Nilsson, 'it flies in a totally different 

 manner to what it does at other times. Its legs hang down, it 

 elevates its wings, and moves them rapidly, and thus gradually 

 drags itself, as it were, from one elevation to another. Again,' 

 he remarks, ' it never leaves the open line of country where it 

 once appears, and never flies over a forest.' This is in allusion to 

 its summer habits in Sweden ; for here, when frost and snow ap- 

 pear, it congregates in flocks with Finches and Sparrows, and 

 seeks the shelter and the food which the rickyard offers. The 

 specific name miliaria simply signifies * feeder on millet,' an un- 

 fortunate title, which might, with equal propriety, have been 

 given to any other of the genus. Nor is our ' Corn' or ' Common 

 Bunting,' or ' Bunting Lark,' nor the Scandinavian name Korn 

 8parf, ' Corn Sparrow/ more happy. In Leicestershire both this 

 and the Yellow Bunting are called ' Writing Larks/ from the 

 strange markings of the nature of scribbling, perhaps by the pen 

 of an Arab, on their peculiar eggs.* In Sussex it is known as 

 the ' Clod Bird/ from its habit of perching on a projecting clod of 

 turf or clay in a stubble or fallow field, while it utters its 

 monotonous note.f In France it is le Proyer or Bruant Prayer ; 



Zoologist for 1885, p. 466. t Knox, ' Birds of Sussex/ pp. 132, 205. 



