CHAPTER XX. 



THE YELLOW-HAMMER, OR YELLOW-HEAD. 



This, though an extremely pretty bird, is so common that very 

 little notice is taken of it. Its colours are varied and beautiful: 

 the back and wings, bright red; the central part of each feather, 

 brownish-black ; the head and throat, bright yellow ; the 

 feathers of the upper part tipped with black ; the breast, brown- 

 ish-red. The colours of the female are much duller. 



The yellow-hammer resembles linnets, finches, and spar- 

 rows in character and habits, and often associates with them, 

 resorting to the fields in open weather, and often perching in 

 hedges and bushes as well as in trees. In the winter, when the 

 weather is severe, it congregates, with other birds, about 

 houses, farm-buildings, and stack-yards. 



One of the most pleasing features of autumn is, to my 

 mind, these flocks of kindred birds, which are at that time all 

 abroad and yet together, circling in their flight, all rising as 

 you approach, and wheeling away into the stubble-field, or into 

 the distant hedges, now rich with their wild fruits — the black- 

 berry, the wild-rose hip, and the bunches of black-privet berries 

 ■ — and then away again, as you approach, with their variously 

 modulated notes, through the clear air into the yet more distant 

 stubble or bean-field. 



The flight of the yellow-hammer is wavy and graceful, and, 



