214 ORTOLAN. 
1885. A.G. More states that in the Museum of Science and Art 
at Dublin there is a specimen said to have been taken in co. Clare 
previous to May 1852. 
The Ortolan visits Heligoland in large numbers on the spring as 
well as the autumn passage, and is found in summer as far north as 
the Arctic circle in Scandinavia ; but eastward, its northward range 
gradually recedes to about lat. 57° in Russia. South of the Baltic the 
bird is irregularly distributed throughout Europe, and, though local, 
it is fairly common at no greater distance from this country than 
some districts in the north of France, Flanders, Dutch Brabant &c. 
It is an eminently migratory species. Even in the south of Europe 
(where it is rather partial to low bushes on stony hill-sides) it is only 
a summer-visitor ; in Northern Africa, where it breeds in compara- 
tively small numbers, it goes as far southwards as Abyssinia for the 
winter; while in Palestine, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, and 
Siberia as far as the valley of the Irtish, it only passes the summer, 
occasionally visiting the north-west of India. I have known the 
Ortolan to arrive on the French side of the Pyrenees as early as 
March 23rd; the return begins in August. 
The nest, built in the latter half of May, of dry grass and roots 
with a lining of fine bents and hair, is always on the ground, and 
generally in open fields, though sometimes among coarse herbage 
or under small bushes. The eggs, 4-6 in number, are pale purplish- 
grey, distinctly spotted and very little scrawled with purple or black: 
measurements 78 by ‘62 in. The natural food consists of beetles 
and other insects as much as seeds, but in confinement the bird 
feeds greedily upon oats and millet, until it attains the fatness which 
is proverbial. The note, which is rather metallic, may be syllabled 
as tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tyur. 
The adult male has the crown and nape greenish-grey ; cheeks 
dusky ; feathers of the back, wing coverts and secondaries fulvous- 
brown, with dark central stripes; rump reddish-brown ;_ tail- 
feathers brown, with oblong patches of white on the three outer 
pairs; throat sulphur-yellow, with a dusky streak from the gape 
downwards on each side; pectoral band olive-grey ; lower breast, 
belly and under tail-coverts warm chestnut; bill dull red; legs 
brownish-orange. Length 6°25 in.; wing 3°3 in. Males in their 
first spring have the rump dull striated brown ; no white on the third 
inner pair of tail-feathers; paler under parts. The female has 
the head greener and more streaked ; upper parts duller; gorget 
yellowish-buff streaked with brown ; under parts yellowish-buff. 
