BRITISH BIRDS. 
23 
THE CIRL BUNTING. 
(Emberiza Cirlus , Lin.) 
Latham says that these birds are found only in the 
warmer parts of France and Italy. Montagu, on the 
authority of Mr Anstice, as well as his own, makes 
them out to be British birds. He says, in £S April, 
1805, we observed a pair of Girls in the high road 
between Bridgewater and Glastonbury.” 46 To the 
westward it has been clearly traced to Falmouth, in 
Cornwall ; a specimen was in the collection of Colonel 
George, of Penryn, which was shot near that place.” 
Latham describes this bird as follows : — ££ Size of a 
Yellow-hammer: length six inches and a quarter ; bill 
cinereous brown ; the head olive green, with a dusky 
line down the shaft of each feather ; side of the head 
yellow, with a dash of black between the bill and eye; 
some markings of black on the ears; the chin is also 
black, passing a little backwards ; the hind part of the 
neck, back, and rump, brown ; the feathers dusky in 
the middle; the under parts from the chin, are yellow; 
the breast inclining to brown, and a few dusky streaks 
on the sides of the body ; across the throat a yellow 
band; the tail is brown, edged with grey, the outer 
feather with white on the inner web for half the length ; 
the outermost feather but one has also a spot of white 
in the same place, but of a much smaller size; the 
shape a little forked : the legs yellowish.” cc The fe- 
male is not unlike the male on the upper parts ; the 
under are yellow, streaked with dusky, and inclining to 
white at the chin and vent.” They frequent newly 
ploughed lands, feeding on grain, worms, and insects. 
