YELLOWHAMMER 149 



season spends a great portion of its time in sitting upright and 

 motionless on its perch, uttering its song at regular intervals. 



This species affects rough commons and waste lands in preference 

 to fields, and where he is found you may hear his song at all times 

 of the day, even during the sultriest hours ; for although the yellow 

 hammer remains with us throughout the year, and is able to resist 

 the colds of winter, he is a great lover of heat. The song is very 

 different from that of the species last described : it is composed of 

 half a dozen or more short, reedy notes, all exactly alike, and shaken 

 out, as it were, in a hurry, followed by a long, thin note, or by two 

 notes, slightly melodious in character. It may be described as a 

 trivial and monotonous song, but it is a summer sound which most 

 people hear with pleasure, and the yellowhammer, or ' little-bit-of- 

 bread-and-no-c-h-e-e-s-e,' as it is called in imitation of its note, is 

 something of a favourite with country-people. The rustics have a 

 story about the origin of the bread-and-no- cheese name, which they 

 think very laughable ; and one is certainly very much amused at the 

 manner in which it is usually told. This is ponderous and slow, and 

 strikes one as highly incongruous, the subject being only a childish 

 legend about a little bird. 



According to Yarrell, the Scotch peasants have some curious 

 superstitions about the yellow yoldring, as they call it. To them 

 its song sounds like the words ' Deil, deil, deil tak ye,' and the bird 

 itself is supposed to be on very familiar terms with the evil being 

 whose name it invokes so freely, and who supplies it on a May 

 morning with a drop of his own blood with which to paint its 

 curiously marked eggs. 



About the middle of April the yellowhammer builds its nest, on 

 or above the ground, among furze and bramble bushes, or at the roots 

 of a hedge, or in a bank among grass and nettles. The nest is large 

 but neatly made, outwardly of dry grass, stalks, roots, and moss, 

 the inside being lined with fibres and horsehair. The eggs are four 

 or five in number, purplish white in ground-colour, streaked and 

 veined with deep reddish purple, with violet-grey under-markings. 



The young males acquire the bright yellow head of the adult bird 

 at the autumn moult. 



Although this bird remains with us throughout the year, it has 

 a partial migration. In autumn and winter it is seen in small flocks, 

 often feeding in company with the common bunting and other 

 finches. In winter its food consists principally of seeds ; in sumrnei 

 it subsists largely, and feeds its young exclusively, on insects. 



