Cirl Bunting. 191 



receives less mercy than that of almost any other bird; while 

 the boys address it in the following rhyme of reproach : 



' Half a puddock, half a toad, 



Half a yallow yorling ; 

 Drink a drap o' the deil's blood 

 Every May morning.'* 



77. CIRL BUNTING (Emberiza cirlus). 



The specific name Cirlus is, we are told, derived from the 

 Italian Zirlare, 'to chirp.' In Germany it is known as Zirl- 

 ammer ; in France, as Bruant Zizi ; and in Italy, as Zivolo or 

 Zigolo, all bearing the same signification. But in the north of 

 Portugal, where Mr. Tait says it is by far the commonest of the 

 Buntings, it is called Escrevedeira, 'the Scribbler/ from the 

 markings on the eggs, as I mentioned above. 



Montagu first discovered this species in 1800, on the coast of 

 Devonshire, and after much patient watching and careful 

 examination of its habits, after the usual manner of that most 

 accurate and painstaking inquirer, recorded the result of his 

 observations in the ' Transactions of the Linnsean Society.' Selby 

 hazarded the assertion that it was only to be found on the coast 

 of Devon. Yarrell too, though he gives Wiltshire as one of the 

 counties it frequents, somewhat inconsistently says that it is 

 ' generally found on the coast, and does not often appear to go 

 far inland ;' but here for once our grand-master in Ornithology 

 is at fault, and, indeed, ' quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus ;' 

 for in addition to many notices of its occurrence in all parts of 

 the county, north and south, from various observers on whose 

 accuracy I can rely, I have repeatedly watched it in several 

 localities which it regularly haunts, and have not only killed it, 

 but have found its nest in the neighbourhood of Devizes. 



Only last summer, Mrs. Story Maskelyne informed me that it 



was nesting in the gardens at Basset Down ; and in South Wilts 



the Rev. A. P. Morres described it as widely scattered, though 



not numerous, in the neighbourhood of Salisbury. Mr. Baker, 



* Dyer's ' English Folk-lore,' p. 71. 



