YELLOW HAMMER. 
581 
Tasschenb. Dent. 1. p. 178. — Ih. Vog. Deut. 9. male and female — Frisch, t. 5. 
A. and B. — Yellow Bunting, Br. Zool. No. 119. t. 50. — Arct. Zool. 2. p. 367.’ 
C Albin, 1, t. 66. — Lewin's Br. Birds, 2. t. 73 — Lath. Syn. 3. p. 170. — 
Mont. Orn. Diet. 1. — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 212. — Bewick’s Br. Birds, 1. p. t. 143. 
— Shaw’s Zool. 9. p. 351. t. 55. and 56. both figures incorrect copies. — Setbit, 
pi. 52. f. 2. 3. p. 241. 
Provincicil.—Y oit. Yellow Yoldrin. Yellow Yowley. Yellow 
Yeldrock.* 
The weight of this species is about seven drams ; length six inches ; 
bill dusky bluish ; irides hazel ; the crown of the head, throat, and 
belly, are of a beautiful bright yellow ; the back part and sides of the 
head tinged with green ; the breast, in some, is marked with reddish 
brown ; quill-feathers dusky, the primores edged on their exterior webs 
with greenish yellow, the secondaries with rusty brown, those next the 
body, the greater coverts, and back, dusky, deeply margined with the 
same, the latter dashed with green ; the rump and upper tail coverts 
tawny red ; the tail a little forked, dusky, edged with greenish yellow ; 
the two outer feathers marked with white on the exterior webs ; legs 
yellow brown. 
The female has much less yellow about the head, and the colours in 
general less vivid. The Yellow Hammer is subject to some variety in 
plumage. We have a specimen in which the whole head and neck is 
of a light yellow ; some of the quill-feathers and scapulars white ; and 
the under parts and rump pale yellow. The young birds have no yellow 
about them when first they leave the nest. 
This is one of the most common indigenous birds of this country ; 
if it were more rare, its beauty would be less disregarded. Its song, 
however, is as little attractive as that of the common bunting, pos- 
sessing only a repetition of the same note five or six times successively, 
terminating in one more lengthened and shrill. In winter they assemble 
in flocks, with other granivorous birds, and pick up the scattered grain 
dispersed by the bountiful flail, and not by the master of the hoarded 
sheaves, who knows too well the value of his auriferous store. It 
does not breed till late in the spring. The nest is generally placed 
near the ground, in some low bush, or hedge. It is composed of straw 
and various dried stalks, and lined with fine dried grass, finished with 
long hair. 
* Among several hundreds of these nests, with which I have been 
acquainted, I have rarely indeed seen “ one placed in a low bush or 
hedge,” but almost uniformly on the ground in a tuft of grass, or under 
the brow of a ditch-bank. I possess a specimen built in such a situa- 
tion, very prettily basketted, with long grass leaves and stems, into the 
