THE BTJISTTINGS. 93 



Look at the common Corn Bunting, as he sits on the wires or the 

 hedge-top ; he is lumpy, loQsp-feathered, spiritless, and flies off 

 with his legs hanging down, and without a trace of agility or 

 vivacity ; he is a dull bird, and seems to know it. Near him 

 sits a Yellow Bunting (Yellowhammer), a beautiful bird when 

 in full adult plumage of yellow head, orange-brown back, white 

 outer tail-feathers, and pink legs; yet even this valued old 

 friend is apt to be untidy in the sit of his feathers, to perch in 

 a melancholy brown study with .deflected tail, and to utter the 

 same old song all the spring and summer through. This gong, 

 however (if indeed it can be ealJed one), is a much better one 

 than that of the Corn Bunting, and is ocoaisionally even a little 

 varied.^ 



Just below, on an alder-branch or withy-sapling, sits a fine 

 cook Eeed Bunting, whose jet-black head and white neck make 

 him a conspicuous object in spite of the sparrow-like brown of his 

 back and wings. Except in plumage, he is exactly like his rela- 

 tions. He will sit there, as long as you like to stay, and 

 shuffling his feathers, give out his odd tentative and half-hearted 

 song. Like the others he builds on or close to the ground, in 

 this case but a few yards from the rails, and his wife, like theirs, 

 lays eggs streaked agd lined in tikat curious way that is peculiar 

 to Buntings alone. I have not had personal experience of our 

 rarer Buntings, the Ortolan, the Snow Bunting, or even the 

 Cirl Btrntiug, as living birds ; bat all the members of this 

 curious race seem to have the characteristics mentioned above in 



^ See Note B at tke end of the volume. 



