174 THE BIRDS OF NORTRAMPT 02^^ SHIRE 



lb. COMMON BUNTING. 



Etnheriza miliaria. 



Though the above adjective common has been long 

 applied to this bird, it is, in fact, as Yarrell says, by 

 no means the most common of our Buntings, and in 

 our part of Northamptonshire is certainly not a very 

 abundant species. A few pairs breed with us and 

 remain throughout the year, but I do not think that 

 it is sufficiently well known to have obtained a local 

 name, though in many parts of England it is known 

 as Corn-Bunting or Bunting-Lark; the former of 

 which is a most appropriate designation, as the bird 

 is generally to be found about the fences of our 

 arable land, where in the spring-time it may be seen 

 perched on a tall spray, dusting itself on the cart- 

 roads, fluttering over the young corn with heavy 

 flight and hanging legs, and continually giving forth 

 its tedious and rasping notes, I can hardly call them 

 song. The nest is usually placed on the ground in 

 some thick tuft of grass, sometimes in the growing 

 corn itself; it is a large loosely built structure of 

 roots and strong bents, with a lining of fine grass 

 and hair. The eggs are generally five or six, of a 

 dirty white, clouded with lilac, streaked and spotted 

 with dark brown, and almost always with irregular 

 lines of the same colour. This Bunting is a very 

 late breeder, and even in Southern Spain, where the 

 species is tediously abundant, I have found fresh 

 eggs as late as the end of May. In winter these 

 Buntings fiock with other birds about the stubble- 

 fields and rick-yards. 



