than the Yellovvhaininer, both with us and on the continent, I may cite the following passage from Bailly’s 
‘ Ornithologie de la Savoie:’ — “Although common in Switzerland and Savoy, it is less numerous than the 
Yellow Bunting, which it resembles in habits and manners. A small number only remain with us during 
the winter, the greater number retiring southwardly before the cold season commences, and returning again 
in pairs or small companies in March.” Mr. Tristram says it is extremely rare in Algeria, otdy two or three 
pairs having been seen by him on the edge of the forest districts. The late Mr. Strickland observed that 
at Smyrna it haunts the vicinity of streams, and seems in that country to replace the Yellow Bunting. 
Mr. Yarrell informs us that the nest “ is generally built in furze, or some low bush ; it is composed of dry 
stalks with a little moss, and lined with long hair and fbrous roots ; the eggs are four or five in number, of 
a dull white tinged with blue, streaked and speckled with dark liver-brown ; the length ten lines, by eight 
lines in breadth. The young are hatched in thirteen or fourteen days, and are supplied by the parent birds 
with insect food ; when reared by band. Colonel Montagu found grasshoppers most serviceable, with the 
addition of uncooked meat finely divided. Some years since, several old birds were observed, near Brading, 
in the Isle of Wight, to feed constantly on the berries of the woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara \ and a 
paste made of these berries, mixed with wheat flour and fine gravel, proved excellent food for some of their 
young birds, which were reared without difficulty. 
A nest given to me by Mr. Bond closely resembled that of the Yellowhammer. It is outwardly com- 
posed of dried grasses, a little green moss, and a small quantity of wool, and lined with cow-hairs about three 
inches in length. Mr. Bond has seen as many as six nests in one season in the neighbourhood of Freshwater, 
in the Isle of AYight (where the bird is known by the name of the French Yellowhammer), and says that the 
eggs are never more than four, and generally only three in number. 
The adult male in summer has the crown of the head dark olive-grey, with a streak of black down tlie 
centre of each feather; over each eye a broad streak of yellow, below which is a streak of black passing 
from the bill around and behind the eye, which is succeeded by another streak of yellow ; chin and throat 
black bounded below by a crescentic band of pale yellow ; band across the back of the neck and another 
across the breast olive-grey; back and scapularies rich chestnut-brown, each feather edged with grey; wing- 
coverts dusky black broadly margined with chestnut; primaries and secondaries dusky, very narrowly edged 
with yellowish; upper tail-coverts yellowish olive; tail-feathers dusky black, the central pair tinged with 
red on the edges, the remainder narrowly edged with pale greyish white, the two outer ones on each side 
with a large oblong patch of white on the inner web, most extensive on the outer feather ; on each side of 
the breast a patch of red feathers with pale edges ; belly and under tail-coverts pale yellow ; upper mandible 
deep brown, under mandible bluish white ; tarsi reddish flesh-colour, toes rather darker ; irides hazel. 
The female differs in being browmer on the head, in being brown instead of rufous on the back, and in 
having the throat, breast, and flanks yellowish olive streaked with brown. 
The Plate represents both sexes of the size of life, on the Clematis vltalha after it has done flowering. 
