ORTOLAN. 
50 
I think, one way, although there may be exceptions to it. 
The food of this bird consists of grain and seeds, as also 
of insects and their larvse, on which latter the young are 
principally fed, as is the case with other birds of allied kinds. 
The monotonous note of this species is almost incessantly 
repeated by the male bird during the pairing season. As a 
cage bird, Bechstein describes its song as full and clear. 
The Ortolan Bunting begins to build early in May. 
The nest is placed in corn-fields, and adapted to some 
hollow in the ground, or the latter possibly to it; Selby adds 
thickets and low hedges as places of its nidification also. It 
is formed of dry grass and small roots, thickly lined with 
the finer portions of the latter; in some the inside is finished 
with a few hairs. 
The eggs are four or five, sometimes, though rarely, six in 
number: they vary much in markings. 
Male; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, reddish brown: 
from its lower corner descends a short streak of yellow, between 
which and the yellow of the chin is a narrow band of greenish 
grey. Iris, brown; head on the crown and sides, greenish 
grey, the shafts of the feathers dark coloured; neck on the 
back, the same; nape, the same; chin, throat, and breast on 
the upper part, yellowish green, the remainder of the latter 
is reddish buff, the feathers tipped with greyish white; back 
on the upper part, rich reddish brown, or yellowish brown, 
with a tinge of green on the edges of the feathers, but almost 
black in the middle; on the lower part it is reddish, or yel¬ 
lowish brown. 
The wings have the first three feathers nearly equal in 
length and the longest in the wing, the fourth nearly a quarter 
of an inch shorter than the third; greater and lesser wing 
coverts, dusky black, with broad rufous brown margins, which 
at some seasons are yellowish white; primaries, dusky black, 
narrowly edged with rufous brown, at some seasons with yel¬ 
lowish white; secondaries, dusky black, also edged with rufous 
brown; tertiaries, dusky black, with broad rufous brown 
margins. Tail, dusky black, the centre feathers tinted with 
reddish, and their margins paler; the two outer feathers on 
each side with a patch of white on the inner web; upper tail 
coverts, reddish or yellowish brown; under tail coverts, pale 
reddish buff. Legs and toes, pale brown, with a tinge of 
red: the hind claw is not much curved. 
The female is generally of a duller hue, and is also rather 
