70 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
Nest. — Generally placed on the ground, but occasionally in 
a gorse-bush. It is composed of dry grass and bents, with a 
few twigs and rootlets and a little moss. It is lined with fine 
roots. 
Eggs. — Four to six in number. From the curious “scrib- 
bling” on the eggs the Yellow Bunting, or “ Yellow Hammer,” 
as it is generally called,* is in many places known as the 
“ Writing Lark.” By this name it was always familiar to 
us in our school-days in Northamptonshire. Ground-colour 
of eggs varying from stone-grey to reddish- or pinkish-grey, 
or even white. The markings always irregular, no two 
eggs being exactly alike, sometimes with greyish underlying 
blotches, but generally very distinctly spotted and lined with 
overlying marks of purplish-brown. Axis, 0-75-0-97 ; diam., 
o' 6-07 5. 
THE CIRL BUNTING. EMDERIZA CIRLUS. 
Emberiza cirlus, Linn., S. N., i., p. 31 1 (1766); Macg., Br. B., 
i., p. 450 (1837); Dresser, B. Eur., iv., p. 177, pi. 210 
(1871); Newt. ed. Yarr., ii., p. 50 (1876) ; B. O. U. List 
Br. B., p. 60 (1883); Seeb., Br. B., ii., p. 156 (1884); 
Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., xii., p. 525 (r888) ; Saunders, 
Man., p. 203 (1889); Wyatt, Br. B., pi. 17 (1894). 
Adult Hale. — Somewhat resembles the Yellow Bunting, but is 
chestnut above, streaked with black. The breast is chestnut 
and the abdomen yellow, the flanks streaked with blackish; 
lower back and rump olive-greenish, streaked with dusky ; head 
and hind-neck olive-green, streaked with black ; eyebrow 
yellow ; throat black, followed by a yellow patch. Total 
length, 5-5 inches; culmen, 0-45; wing, 3-9; tail, 2-45; tarsus, 
0-65. 
The winter plumage is duller, the feathers being edged with 
olive, and the summer plumage is attained by the gradual 
wearing off of the dull edges. 
Adult remale. — Lacks the black and yellow markings on the 
face ; the throat and breast striped ; lesser wing-coverts greenish- 
grey, different from the back. This last feature will always 
distinguish it from the female Yellow Bunting. 
* If the vernacular name is to be employed, it should properly be Yellow 
A vihtery as it comes doubtless from the German word “ Ammer,” a Bunting . 
