THE CIRL BUNTING. 113 
Saunders who found it not uncommon on the chalk-hills of Surrey, it “is placed 
in a bank among the stems of a hazel or other bush, though sometimes in furze, 
or juniper, at a little distance from the ground.’ My nests were all found within 
a foot or two above the earth, the first in a stunted furze-bush tangled with a 
blackberry vine, two others in low juniper scrub overrun with bramble, and the 
fourth in a young hawthorn bush. 
The nest is tolerably compact internally, though externally somewhat loosely 
put together, the outer wall usually consisting of coarse dead grass, bents, and 
vegetable fibre; the lining of fine fibre and black horse-hair: occasionally a little 
moss is said to be used in the lining; but this material is rarely used by any of 
the British Buntings. The eggs number from four to five (my nests contained 
respectively four, four, three, and two eggs) and are often somewhat broader than 
those of the Yellow Hammer, they are white, generally very faintly tinged with 
lilac; streaked, spotted, and dotted with purplish black, especially towards the 
larger end; with small, and frequently indistinct lilacine greyish shell-spots. The 
markings often terminate in round blots; and, occasionally, some of the streaks 
are chocolate. Seebohm describes an abnormal nest in his collection as ‘“‘somewhat 
loosely put together, and made externally of various plant-stems, blades of grass, 
roots, and quantities of dead leaves. It is lined with one or two scraps of moss, 
a few pieces of fine grass, and a great quantity of short hair.” 
The eggs of the Cirl Bunting vary much less than those of the Yellow 
Bunting; but Seebohm states that some of them have a greenish-white ground- 
tint. 
Lord Lilford says :—‘‘ The few nests I have met with were all placed on steep 
banks by the side of a road or footway, amongst low bushes and herbage, and 
were built of moss and grass-stalks, with a lining of cow’s hair.” 
Herr Gatke (Birds of Heligoland, p. 371) states that he has only twice 
obtained this Bunting on the island; he gives Zaunammer as the German trivial 
name of the species; but Von Homeyer (in the Gefiederte Welt, 1891, p. 444) 
applies this name to ELméderiza cia, using the term Zzppammer (used for the Meadow 
Bunting alone by Gatke) in a generic sense. If two such distinct species as 
Emberiza cirlus and E. cia are each called ‘“‘The Hedge Bunting” by well-known 
writers, the confusion respecting them is likely to be as fruitful of mischief as the 
incorrect application of the trivial name of Black-headed Bunting to Lméeriza 
scheniclus has been in England. 
The food of this species is similar to that of its congeners; consisting largely 
of grasshoppers, beetles, moths, caterpillars, and spiders, during the breeding- 
season; but in autumn and winter, of various seeds and: grain. In confinement 
