THE CIRL BUNTING. III 
Family—F RINGILLIDAE. Subfamily—EMBERIZINAE. 
THE CIRL BUNTING. 
Emberiza civlus, LINN. 
HE range of the Cirl Bunting is more restricted than that of the other 
European species as it does not extend into the northern parts of the 
Continent. In Central and Southern Europe it is resident, but in Southern 
Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor, it seeks the mountains for breeding purposes. In 
Belgium and Holland it is said to be rare. It has been found breeding in 
Algeria, but appears to be chiefly a winter visitor to North-west Africa. 
Though resident in Great Britain and not rare, the Cirl Bunting is decidedly 
local, being essentially a southern species. Formerly every work on British 
Birds which was published, used to assert that this bird was found breeding 
in all the southern counties from Cornwall to Sussex, being apparently absent 
from Kent; and even after Mr. Bidwell had recognised in my collection a clutch 
of eggs of this species, which I had taken at Iwade, near Sheppy, on June 
5th, 1877, as being unquestionably those of £. cir/us (a fact which I believe I 
promptly recorded in the “‘Zoologist’’) the same statement was repeated, until 
the appearance of Howard Saunders’ Manual in 1888. It has, however, been 
found breeding as far northward as Yorkshire, but it is of accidental occurrence 
at any season either in the midlands or the northern counties.* In Scotland 
it has occurred as a chance straggler, but its recorded occurrence in Ireland 
has been questioned. 
The adult male Cirl Bunting has the crown and nape olive-green, longitudinally 
streaked with dull black; the rump and upper tail-coverts olivaceous; the sides 
of the head blackish olive, with a lemon-yellow stripe above, and a second below 
the eye, from the base of the beak to the neck; the chin and throat to the sides 
of the neck dull black, bounded by a half collar of lemon-yellow; across the chest 
is a greyish olive belt; sides and flanks chestnut, narrowly streaked with black ; 
remainder of under parts lemon-yellow: in other respects this species nearly 
resembles the Yellow Bunting, the back, wings, and tail being very similar; the 
* In the “Zoologist” for 1891, p. 353, Mr. E. A. Swainson records its occurrence in Cardiganshire, and 
observes :—‘‘ This species, which has in the last two years become rather common in parts of the adjoining 
county of Brecon, where it was previously very rare, appears to be gradually extending its range westwards. 
