188 
EMBERIZIN^. EMBERIZA. 
The Corn Bunting is generally distributed, permanently re- 
sident ; frequents open pastures, grass and corn fields ; perches 
on tall herbaceous plants, bushes, or trees, the male there 
chanting his singular song, which is a hurried repetition of 
short unharm onious notes, terminated by a protracted one. 
It feeds on seeds of grasses, polygona, rumices, cereal plants, 
and coleopterous insects, in winter becomes extremely fat, 
and as an article of food is equal to the Lark. At this season 
it generally forms flocks, which break up about the middle of 
spring. The nest, composed of dry stalks and blades of grass, 
with a lining of fibrous roots and hair, is placed on the ground 
among grass or herbage. The eggs are four or five, ten and a 
half twelfths long, nearly eight-twelfths in breadth, greyish- 
white, patched and spotted with pale greyish-purple, and 
marked with spots, dots, and curved lines of blackish-brown. 
Bunting. Common Bunting. Sparrow. 
Emberiza Miliaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 308. — Emberiza 
Miliaria, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. i. 306. — Emberiza Miliaria, 
Corn Bunting, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, i. 440. 
114. Emberiza Citrinella. Yellow Bunting. 
Back and wings bright red, the central part of each feather 
brownish-black. Male with the head and throat bright yel- 
low, the feathers of its upper part tipped with black, the breast 
brownish-red. Female with the yellovf of the head obscured 
by dusky and brown, the breast pale greyish-brown. Young 
dull yellowish-brown, streaked with black above, yellowish- 
grey beneath, the breast and sides streaked with brown. 
This species is very widely distributed, being in most of the 
cultivated and wooded districts of Britain and Ireland a very 
common and familiar bird, and a permanent resident. In au- 
tumn it forms large straggling flocks, which through the win- 
ter often mingle with Chaffinches, Green Linnets, Sparrows, 
and other species, in open weather resorting to the fields, and 
perching at intervals in the hedges and bushes, as well as on 
trees. When the ground is covered with snow, they congre- 
gate about houses, and frequent corn-yards. Their flight is 
undulated, light, strong, and graceful, and they alight abruptly, 
jerking out their tail-feathers. In spring and summer the male 
chants a doleful sort of ditty, composed of a few short shrill 
notes, concluding with a protracted one. Their food consists 
of seeds of cereal plants, especially oats, grasses, chickweeds, 
polygona, and others. The nest, composed of coarse grasses 
Male, 7|? 1 1 
Female, idf. 
