THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



91 



BRITISH BIRDS : THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



By S. L. MOSLEY. 



66. BUNTING. 

 Emberiza miliaria, Linn, 



Also called Common Bunting and Corn Bunting. 

 Miliaria, from millet, a kind of seed. 



Size, — Length about 7 J in., expanse 1ft., lin., to 1ft., 2in. 



Plumage- — Bill yellowish, with a dark brown line along the upper 

 ridge. Eyes hazel. The whole of the upper parts have each feather 

 yellowish-brown, lighter on the edges, and a dark, almost black line down 

 the centre. Wings umber-brown, with pale drab or yellowish- drab margins, 

 narrow on the primaries and broader on the rest of the wing. Tail the same 

 colour. Throat, sides of neck, and under parts dingy white, tinted with 

 buff on the breast and sides, streaked on the latter, and spotted with arrow 

 heads on the former, of a blackish-brown. Legs and claws yellowish-brown. 



The Sexes are similar in colour. 



Immature Birds are also very similar to the adults, but more tinted 

 with pale yellow. 



Varieties of this species are fairly numerous, chiefly pied or pale-coloured. 



Pied. — A very pretty pied one is in Mr. Whitaker's collection, and he has 

 four more specimens, and a sixth with head and shoulders white. A pied 

 one is in the York Museum. Mr. Bond has seven or eight pied specimens 

 killed in Cambridgeshire, Farnham, and other places. He considers 

 pied birds common. White. — Mr. Bond has a white one, tinted with lemon, 

 and another pure white, a true albino. Mr. Marshall, of Taunton, has two 

 white ones, and Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has another. Several intermediate 

 forms also occur. 



Note.— The song, if it may be called such, of this bird is a harsh grating 

 sound, consisting of " chi c7d" begun slowly, and runs out to a trill. The 

 latter part is similar to rubbing ones wet ringer against a window pane. 

 When singing the bird is generally perched on the top of a wall or hedge, 

 but sometime it sings on the wing. 



Flight. — The flight is generally in a more or less straight line, but heavy and 

 j somewhat undulating, caused by alternate flappings of the wings and cessations. 



Migration. — The Common Bunting is a resident with us throughout the 

 year. In summer they may be found in pairs, but in winter they associate 

 in small flocks, or with other hard-billed birds, and may then be found 

 j 1 about farm yards and corn ricks. 



