GLYCYSPINA HORTULANA. 
Ortolan Bunting*. 
Emheriza hortulana, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 84. 
Badensis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 873. 
chlorocephala, Gmel. ib., p. 887. 
Tunstallii, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 418. 
Malheyensis, Sparrm. Mus. Carls., tom. i. tab. 21. 
citrinella, var., Flem. Hist. Brit. Anim., p. 77. 
finguescens, Brehm, Vbg. Deutschl., tom. i. p. 295. 
Citrinella Tiortnlana, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 142. 
Hortulanus chlorocephalus, Bonap. in Parz. Cat. Ois. d’Eur., p. 4. sp. 131. 
Glycyspina hortulana, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 128. 
Birds not only contribute to the pleasure of man by their songs, their thousand actions, interesting ways, 
and varied habits and economies, but they also contribute their fair share towards his sustenance. Besides 
the amount afforded by the great group of Gallinacem, the marsh-, and water-birds, many of the smaller 
species form no inconsiderahle item in supplying his wants and desires. In the acquirement of delicacies 
for the pampering of his appetite many devices are resorted to, some of which are accompanied by a 
degree of cruelty much to be deprecated : I allude to the means adopted to obtain the celebrated “ pate de 
foie gras,” to the repeated takings of the nest of the esculent Swallow, and the continued robbery of the 
eggs of the Plover — acts which cause the Goose to die a miserable death, the Swallow to exhaust itself 
in the reconstruction of its glutinous cradle, and the Plover to weaken its system by a forced reproduction 
of its eggs. In Europe three little insessorial birds are especially regarded as delicacies for the table — the 
Wheatear, the Beccafico, and the Ortolan. The last of these (the bird represented on the accompanying 
Plate), which, although not indigenous to our island, is sometimes found here, is sent from the continent 
to London by thousands, but the great bulk of the community, the middle class and the poor, never see 
or partake of them ; it is the noble and wealthy epicures alone who can afford to gratify their appetites 
with this costly “ bonne bouche.” The marchioness and the lady of the alderman consult their poulterers 
as to the more choice viands for the summer season, that nothing may be wanting for their next recherche 
dinner. A dish of Ortolans being the “ chose,” the fattening-cage is resorted to, and a dozen or more are 
taken out and killed if they have not already been trampled to death hy their companions, or died during 
the night from apoplexy or sheer obesity, the little birds, which in a state of nature scarcely exceed the size 
of a Tit, having become a mass of fat the appearance of which is very unlike that of an ordinary plucked 
Bunting. This essence of millet and canary-seed is certainly not to be despised ; and the clubman of our 
great metropolis frequently doubles the amount of his dinner-bill by ordering a couple of Ortolans. Alas 
for the fate of the little birds ! which have been netted in Italy, Savoy, and France, and sent hither to be 
fattened and stifled in low cages, where they have not sufficient room to flutter their wings, for the special 
gratification of those whose gustatory enjoyments dominate over their other senses. The procuring of a 
string of Larks is, comparatively speaking, unattended with cruelty ; a trapped Wheatear is killed in a 
moment, a Beecafico is destroyed with shot, or taken from the meshes of a net and immediately dispatched ; 
but the Ortolan, captured during his migration from the southern to the northern parts of Europe, where 
he would otherwise have paired, loved, and bred, terminates the last summer of his existence in the cruel 
manner above described. 
It is somewhat surprising that a bird so common on the continent, and which is a migrant withal, should 
not have been more frequently seen in this country ; few, however, as are the instances of its occurrence, they 
are sufficient to entitle it to a place in our avifauna. The first specimen recorded as having been taken 
in England was captured by a London birdcatcher in Marylebone Fields, and was figured in Brown’s 
‘Illustrations of Zoology,’ a work published in 1776: this is the example described by Latham in the third 
volume of his ‘ Synopsis of Birds,’ and moreover was the source, according to Yarrell, from which Gmelin, 
Lewin, Montagu, and others copied their descriptions. Bewick’s figure was taken from a specimen caught 
at sea off the Yorkshire coast by the master of a trading vessel, and which subsequently passed into the 
possession of G. T. Fox, Esq. Another was killed near Manchester in 1827. A fourth, taken near London, 
in a birdcatcher’s net, in 1837, along with Yellow Buntings, was dejiosited in the aviary of the Zoological 
Society of London in the Regent’s Park. The bird is said to have been seen in Norfolk. Mr. Rodd has 
recorded that an example was killed at Trescoe, one of the Scilly Islands, in 1851 ; the next year one was 
