than the Yellowhammer, both with us and on the continent, I may ce eS passage ere
Si Qos ale 7
‘Ornithologie de la Savoie :—‘ Although common in Switzerland and Sav he it : ess a " t e
Yellow Bunting, which it resembles in habits and manners. A small number ae ms nN we
the winter, the greater number retiring southwardly before the cold season on bs a a
in pairs or small companies in March.” Mr. Tristram ee i: extremely rare ” <n a coe e
pairs having been seen by him on the edge of the forest districts. The late Mr. Strickland o coe that
at Smyrna it haunts the vicinity of streams, and seems in that country to replace the aller Bunting.

Mr. Yarrell informs us that the nest ‘“ is generally built in furze, or some low bush; it is composed of dry
stalks with a little moss, and lined with long hair and fibrous roots; the eggs are four or five in nung of
a dull white tinged with blue, streaked and speckled with dark liver-brown ; the length ten lines, by eight
lines in breadth. The young are hatched in thirteen or fourteen days, and are supplied by the parent birds
with insect food ; when reared by hand, Colonel Montagu found grasshoppers most serviceable, with the
addition of uncooked meat finely divided. Some years since, several old birds were observed, near Brading,
in the Isle of Wight, to feed constantly on the berries of the woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara; and a
paste made of these berries, mixed with wheat flour and fine gravel, proved excellent food for some of their
young birds, which were reared without difficulty.

A nest given to me by Mr. Bond closely resembled that of the Yellowhammer. It is outwardly com-
posed of dried grasses, a little green moss, and a small quantity of wool, and lined with cow-hairs about three
inches in length. Mr. Bond has seen as many as six nests in one season in the neighbourhood of Freshwater,
in the Isle of Wight (where the bird is known by the name of the French Yellowhammer), and says that the
€s88 are never more than four, and generally only three in number.

The adult male in summer has the crown of the head dark olive-grey, with a streak of black down the
centre of each feather; over each eye a broad streak of yellow, below which is a streak of black passing
from the bill around and behind the eye, which is succeeded by another streak of yellow; chin and throat
black bounded below by a crescentic band of pale yellow ; band across the back of the neck and another
across the breast olive-grey ; back and scapularies rich chestnut-brown, each feather edged with grey ; wing-
coverts dusky black broadly margined with chestnut ; primaries and secondaries dusky, very narrowly edged
with yellowish ; upper tail-coverts yellowish olive; tail-feathers dusky black, the central pair tinged with
red on the edges, the remainder narrow

ly edged with pale greyish white, the two outer ones on each side
with a large oblong patch of w

hite on the inner web, most extensive on the outer feather ; on each side of
the breast a patch of red feathers with pale edges ; belly and under tail-cove

deep brown, under mandible bluish white ;
The female differs in being browner

rts pale yellow; upper mandible
tarsi reddish flesh-colour, toes rather darker; irides hazel.

on the head, in being brown instead of rufous on the back, and in
having the throat, breast, and flanks yellowish olive streaked with brown.

The Plate represents both sexes of the size of life, on the Clematis vitalba after it has done flowering,