358 CIRL BUNTING. 



are generally built in some low bush or furze, and 

 composed of dry stalks, roots, and a little moss, 

 and lined with long hair and fibrous roots : their 

 eggs are four or five in number, of a cinereous white, 

 with irregular curved dusky lines, terminating in a 

 spot at one end : these birds pair in April, and 

 begin to lay in May : the food of the young birds 

 appears to be insects, but they show the greatest 

 partiality to grasshoppers : they will likewise eat 

 various seeds, of which canary is the favourite : the 

 male has a shrill and piercing monotonous song, 

 which it is continually repeating ; the female has 

 only a gentle plaintive chirup. 



They are said to be abundant in France, Italy, 

 and other warm parts of Europe, frequenting newly 

 plowed lands, feeding on grain, worms and insects, 

 which they pick out of the ground : they are easily 

 tamed, and will live above six years : the female 

 of this bird is extremely like that of the Yellow- 

 hammer, which may have been the cause of its 

 not having been observed till lately, as it is very 

 abundant in the west of England : its note is also 

 similar. 



