Some Notes on the Birds 
OF WHICH 
PHOTOGRAPHS APPEAR IN 
THE FOREGOING PAGES . . 
BY 
George Girdwood. 
Blackbird — This sable-coated songster with its yellow bill is 
familiar to everyone. The species is resident with us all year, is 
widely distributed, and is to be observed commonly in all wooded 
neighbourhoods. Though guilty of talcing a toll from the ripened 
fruit of the currant bushes, he amply repays this by services to the 
gardener, and by the delight of his mellow, flute-like song heard 
from early spring late into summer. The nest is placed in a hedge 
or shrub, about five feet from the ground, and contains four or 
five eggs of a pale green ground-colour, thickly covered with brown 
spot.s. 
Bunting, Yellow — This, the most common of the British 
buntings, is resident, widely distributed, and, in most corn-growing 
districts, abundant. Its colouring is bright, the back and breast 
yellowish-green, streaked with black, as are also the feathers of 
the wing and tail. In the male bird the tail coverts are bright 
chestnut colour, the crown brilliant yellow, and the rest of the 
head yellowish-green. In this bird, as in the other buntings, the 
mandible is furnished on the inner surface with a horny ridge 
by means of which the bird separates the outer husk from the 
grain or seed on which it largely feeds. The Yellow Bunting 
usually places its nest upon the ground, often upon a bank, but 
sometimes in furze or low-growing bush. The eggs, three to 
six in number, are of stone colour suffused with faint purple, and 
scrawled and scribbled with lines and dots of dark purplish brown. 
The song of the Yellow Bunting, while apt in the districts where 
the bird is abundant to become monotonous, is characteristic and 
unmistakable, consisting of a series of twitterings leading to a' long 
drawn out note on which it dwells. It song has been likened to 
the words “a little bit of bread and butter p-l-e-a-s-e.” 
Chaffinch — This finch is one of the most brilliantly coloured 
of our British birds, and the male in spring, when the varied 
colours of his plumage are at their brightest, with his blue cap, 
and bright contrast of black, white, and saffron on wings and 
breast, presents a handsome appearance, as he pours out his short 
but melodious song, or utters his characteristic cry of “pink- 
pink.” The Chaffinch is a resident with us throughout the year, 
IS widely distributed, and in many districts is abundant. The habit 
