MEADOW BUNTING. 
49 
own family. Its motion on the ground is heavy, and 
it has a quick, w'avy, or jerking flight. Its habits 
altogether are very similar to those of the Yellowhammer. 
Its call-note is a short sharp ‘zi-zi-zi,’ which some- 
times sounds like ^zip,’ and hence its German name. 
The song of the male is very similar to that of the 
Yellowhammer, but shorter and clearer. Bechstein 
expresses its note as ‘zi-zi-zi-zirr-zirr,’ others as ‘zip- 
zip-zip-zai-zip-zip-zip-zi.’ It is a diligent songster, and 
often sits upon the top of a rather low tree or bush. 
^Vhen kept in confinement the Meadow Bunting is 
sometimes heard to sing at night. It is a pleasant 
bird in a room, and soon becomes very domestic, and 
may be kept for several years. Bechstein had a pair 
which he kept for several years. They are very affec- 
tionate to each other, and live sociably with different 
birds in confinement, preferring the Yellowhammer. 
The Meadow Bunting feeds upon insects, grass seeds, 
oats, and millet seeds. It will also eat hemp and 
poppy seed, and in confinement become quite content 
and healthy upon this food, with the addition of a 
little bread soaked in milk; as a treat nothing is so 
welcome as ants’ eggs or a mealworm. 
Naumann further remarks that they breed certainly 
in Germany, in Austria more frequently, but in Italy 
plentifully. The nest he describes as like that of the 
Yellowhammer, and the eggs similar to those of that 
bird, but they may be readily distinguished from both 
it and every other Bunting. They are roundish, short, 
and oval; dirty or greyish white, with many reddish 
and rust-brown streaks and hairs marked upon them. 
There are also shorter streaks, which the other Bun- 
tings have not. Brehm, in his description of the egg 
in Biideker’s work upon European eggs, says, ‘Tt 
