BUNTING. 301 



breast a yellow bar ; below this greenish olive, from thence to the 

 vent yellow ; but the sides of the breast are chestnut and yellow 

 mixed ; back and rump brown, and the feathers darker in the 

 middle; greater quills dusky, fringed with yellow ; the two middle 

 tail feathers chestnut brown, the others blackish, the two outer 

 marked obliquely with white half way from the end, on the inner 

 web, and the most exterior is fringed the whole length on the outer ; 

 shape of the tail hollowed out a little in the middle, as in the Yellow 

 Bunting. The female weighs half a drachm less than the male, and 

 has less yellow about the head ; the chin and throat dull yellow, 

 instead of black ; the latter streaked with dusky; and the plumage 

 in general less bright. 



This species is found in the warmer parts of France and Italy ; 

 said to frequent newly ploughed lands, feeding on grain, worms, and 

 insects, which it picks out of the ground ; often found among flocks 

 of Chaffinches, and the note like the words zi, zi. It is easily tamed, 

 and now and then kept in cages. Olina says, it lives six years. 



Till a discovery of this bird by Col. Montagu in Devonshire, it 

 was supposed not to inhabit England. This Gentleman has, how- 

 ever, been fortunate, in detecting it near Kingsbridge, in the winter, 

 1800. He says, it is not uncommon amongst flocks of Yellow Buntings 

 and Chaffinches ; and was able to procure several specimens, but 

 they seem to be confined to the southern parts of that country, con- 

 tiguous to the coast, extending as far as Teignmouth, at both which 

 places he has found their nest, but never far inland. It generally 

 builds in furze, or some low bush ; the nest composed of dry stalks, 

 roots, and a little moss, lined with long hairs, and fibres of roots ; 

 the eggs four or five,* cinereous white, with irregular, long and 

 short, curved dusky lines, terminating very frequently with a spot 

 at one end ; size rather inferior to that of the Yellow Bunting, to 



* Rarely six. Colonel Montagu has been successful in rearing them from the nest, 

 and found, that while very young, they thrive best on large Grasshoppers, and describes this 

 as a very timid species. See Lin. Trans, vii. 277. 



