210 YELLOW BUNTING. 
though said to occur in the Canaries. In Palestine, according to 
Canon Tristram, its place is taken bya very distinct species, Z. cesia, 
which occasionally wanders to Heligoland; where, by the way, the 
Yellow Bunting is common on migration in spring and autumn. 
The nest, constructed of dry grasses and a little moss, with a 
lining of finer material and hair, is usually placed on or near the 
ground, in the side of a bank, or among tangled herbage; but 
often it is built in a bush, and in plantations of young spruces ; 
while exceptionally at a height of seven feet. The well-known 
eggs, 4-5 in number, are subject to considerable variation in 
shade of colour, but as a rule they are purplish-white, streaked, 
spotted and clouded with reddish-purple, and scrawled with long 
hair-like markings, from which, in some parts, the bird has acquired 
the name of “Writing Lark”: measurements °85 by 63 in. Incu- 
bation, in which the male takes part, lasts fourteen days, and at least 
two broods are produced in the year ; the first eggs being laid about 
the middle of April, while nestlings are not uncommon in Septem- 
ber. The Cuckoo not infrequently deposits its egg in the nest of this 
species. The familiar song, often rendered as ‘ Little-bit-of-bread- 
and né chéése,’ may be heard from morning till night during the 
hottest weather, and even on bright days in winter. In summer 
both young and old feed largely on insects; in autumn they are 
partial to blackberries and other wild fruits ; while seeds and grain 
form their principal sustenance in winter, at which season large flocks 
frequent stubble-fields and even farm-yards. During severe weather 
the late Mr. Booth observed a flock feeding on the carcase of a horse 
hung up at some kennels, in Perthshire. In many places this pretty 
Bunting has been displaced by the House-Sparrow. 
The adult male has the throat and head lemon-yellow, streaked 
with dusky-brown, especially above and behind each eye; feathers 
of the mantle, coverts, and secondaries reddish-brown with blackish 
central stripes ; quills dusky-brown with narrow yellowish margins ; 
rump and tail-coverts chestnut ; tail-feathers chiefly dark brown, with 
elongated white patches on the lower portions of the two outer pairs ; 
under parts lemon-yellow, with dusky chestnut streaks on the breast 
and flanks ; bill bluish; legs light brown. Length 6:5 in.; wing 
3°35 in. In autumn the colours are duller, owing to the pale 
margins of the new feathers. The female is less yellow and more 
streaked with brown, while the chestnut tints are nearly absent. 
The young are much streaked on the under parts, and show no 
yellow until after their first moult. 
