CORN BUNTING. 75 
Famity FRINGILLIDZA. 
Sus-Framiny HMBERIZINA. 
CORN or “COMMON” BUNTING. 
EmpBeriza MILIania, Linn. 
Pl. XI., figs. 17, 18. 
Geogr. distr.—Europe generally; eastward to Turkestan and 
Central Asia; generally distributed, but somewhat local, in Great 
Britain. 
Food.—Insects, seeds, grain, peas, and beans. 
Nest.—Somewhat loosely constructed (though less so than that 
of the Yellow Bunting), formed externally of sticks, straw, or coarse 
bents, and dry, broad grasses; this outer wall is, however, very thin, 
and almost immediately gives place to a tolerably densely woven 
texture of slender grass-stems and rootlets, lined with horse-hair ; 
the cavity is deeper than in most nests of EF. citrinella. 
Position of nest.—In a depression in the ground, in wild patches 
in flat corn-growing districts; or in low bramble, sprouting hawthorn 
tufts, tufts of the pink Ragged Robin, grass, or other low-growing 
herbage, close to the ground. 
Number of eggs.—4-6 ; usually 5. 
Time of nidification—V-VI1; June. 
According to some writers, the outer wall of the nest 
is partly formed of moss ; this may at times be the case, but 
I have not found it so with the nests that I have taken. The 
eggs are sometimes much more like large eggs of the 
Yellow Bunting than are the two varieties which I have 
figured; fig. 8 of my Plate XII, if a little less pink and 
larger, would very fairly represent a not unusual form. 
This is a somewhat local, but, in the south of England, 
a comparatively common bird, though far less so than the 
Yellow Bunting; it chiefly occurs in cultivated districts ; 
the nest, according to Seebohm, is generally on the ground 
in a little depression, but sometimes it is slightly above it ; 
such as I have found have been in the latter situation, 
but as, according to Yarrell, it appears to be usually placed 
in a field of pease or red clover, grounds upon which I 
rarely trespass, the probability is that I have passed a 
dozen nests for every one I have taken. ; 
The appearance of the Common Bunting is rather 
ungainly than attractive, and its note is harsh and in- 
harmonious, and has been compared to the sound of 
breaking glass. 
