2 
CIRL BUNTING. 
moans an easy matter to determine at a glance the identity of a female. All observers of bird-life must, 
while passing through our country-lanes, have had their attention attracted by the conspicuous warm brown 
tint of the feathers on the rump or lower part of the back of the Yellow Hammer as the bird flies past or 
rises to flutter over a hedgerow. In the Cirl Bunting this red-brown colouring is absent, and the plumage 
is ol a pale olive-green tinge. This fact is mentioned because I do not remember to have seen it alluded to 
by any ornithological writer. 
Hie note ol the two species is also very similar; that of the Cirl Bunting, however, is destitute of the 
prolonged skirl which the Yellow Hammer gives utterance to by way of an ending. In the neighbourhood of 
the South Downs in Sussex I have heard country people compare the song of the Yellow Hammer to the 
following words : “Little bit of bread and no cheeese.” The note of the Cirl Bunting is almost identical, 
with the omission of the long-drawn-out “cheese” at the finish. 
