224 CLASS AVES. 



knob in the roof of the upper mandible, which is made use of 

 by the bird as an anvil on which to break and comminute 

 its food. This apparatus is sufficient to lead the observing 

 naturalist per saltern, as it were, to the conclusion that this 

 genus of birds must be granivorous. It is true, indeed, that 

 very many birds are enabled to crack and open nuts and hard 

 seeds, without the aid of that extra provision with which the 

 buntings are furnished : and this is one of the countless 

 instances which might be adduced to display the various 

 means employed by Nature to attain one and the same end. 

 How different, for instance, are the means by which the 

 several classes of animals attain the common object of loco- 

 motion, and how various are the modifications of those means 

 in the respective genera. The buntings, however, do not feed 

 exclusively on vegetable matter ; like most of their order, 

 they subsist also partially on insects and worms. 



The Yellow Bunting {E. Citrinella). This common spe- 

 cies, in our own country, is known to every one under the 

 name of the Yellow-hammer. The yellow on the crown of 

 the head is sometimes replaced by olive-green : and this, as 

 well as other occasional deviations from the ordinary gamboge 

 yellow of this bird, would in all probability have induced the 

 erroneous multiplication of species, had the yellow bunting 

 and its incidents been less universally known. 



This bird builds in a careless manner, on the ground, or 

 towards the bottom of a small bush. The exterior of the 

 nest consists of straw, moss, dried leaves, and stalks ; and 

 within is a little wool. Notwithstanding the carelessness of 

 its nidification, however, few birds display stronger attach- 

 ment to the young and to their eggs, than this ; so much so, 

 as to be not unfrequently taken by the hand, on the nest, 

 rather than abandon its offspring in time to save itself. The 

 eggs are in general about five in number, and are whitish, 

 with red streaks. 



