412 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Yellow Bunting. 
jet-black, and the under-surface of the body bright yellow, except that the chest is 
banded by a zone of chestnut. The female is greyish brown, like a lien-sparrow, 
above; the lower-parts being pale yellow, striped on the flanks with dark brown. 
The yellow bunting {E. citrinella ) is a common bird in Northern 
Europe, extending eastwards into Siberia, and frequenting alike the 
more cultivated valleys of Norway and the south of Europe. Mr. Dresser observes 
that it is to be seen on almost every hedgerow in many parts of England. “ Perched 
on the top of the highest available twig, the male may be heard incessantly pouring 
out his monotonous but not disagreeable song, and during the breeding-season his 
notes fall upon the ear from the early morn till late into the evening. As twilight 
sets in, the yellow bunting may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to 
give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the 
corn-bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk.”. The yellow bunting generally nests 
upon some bank, occasionally in a furze bush. The eggs are white, scribbled over 
with fine, hair-like markings. In autumn the yellow buntings collect in flocks, 
feeding on blackberries and other wild fruits, as well as upon all the grain that 
they can glean in the open fields. As the season advances, they seek the neigh¬ 
bourhood of homesteads, and search for worms and other insects upon heaps of 
manure. Although the yellow bunting is generally supposed to be a resident 
species in Great Britain, there can be no doubt that it is only a summer visitant to 
its more northern breeding-grounds. Large numbers of this species sometimes 
occur on migration in Heligoland. The male has the head and throat bright yellow, 
and the back brown, inclined to rufous, all the feathers having dark centres; the 
wings and tail are blackish brown, the outer tail-feathers having the inner webs 
partly white. In winter the plumage is rendered more dingy by fulvous edgings 
to the feathers. The female is greyish brown above, having the lower parts of the 
back, the rump, and upper tail-coverts pale cinnamon; the under-parts being citron 
yellow and the upper breast mottled with brown and tinged with olive- 
green. 
Closely allied to the last, but more pleasing in both character 
and coloration, is the cirl bunting (E. cirlus), which is thinly dis¬ 
tributed through Central Europe, being in some districts even more common than 
the yellow bunting, but generally taking rank as a scarce bird. English ornithologists 
know it best as a resident in the southern counties, particularly in the west; but it 
has nested as far north as Yorkshire. It is numerous in North Devon, around 
Barnstaple especially, where it is a shier bird than the yellow bunting, and is fond 
of concealing itself in the spring and summer in thick hedges. Both in the spring 
and again in the autumn the male bird is often to be seen perched on the branch 
of some hedgerow elm, from whence he delivers his very unpretending song. 
In Germany the cirl bunting is migratory, leaving its northern habitat in 
November, perhaps even much earlier, and wintering far to the southward, and 
returning in April. It frequents the same kind of places as the yellow bunting, 
such as the bushy banks of streams, meadows, and hedges, small groves and 
mountainous districts in the neighbourhood of fields and gardens. In many other 
respects the cirl bunting resembles the yellow bunting. In spring it prefers to take 
up its position in a high and open place on the tops of trees, but later in the season 
Cirl Bunting'. 
