J. Gou/d le RC. Richter de] ei luh.
jEMBEfflZA CITlBSfiELLA, Limi.
Walter, imp
* E M B E R I Z A CITRINELLA, Linn.
Yellowhammer or Yellow Bunting.
Etnberiza citrinella, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 84.
S| sylvestris, Brehra, Vög. Deutschl., p. 294.
——septentrionalis, Brehtn, ib., p. 294.
Citrinella septentrionalis, Kaup, Natürl. Syst. p. 142.
T he present beautiful bird is known throughout the greater portion of the British Islands by the name of
Yellow-hammer, a term which Yurrell considered to be a corruption of Yellow Ammer, the word “ ammer”
being a common and well-known German name for many o f the Buntings; he has therefore called this
species the Yellow Bunting o r Yellow Ammer. The Scotch biographer o f our nat.ve htrds, Macgdhvruy.
also described it as the Yellow Bunting, and adds the following list o f provme.nl names as apphed to . t : -
YeUowhammer, Yellow Yeldring o r Yoldriog, Yellow Yowley, Yellow Yite, Yoldrmg, o r Yeldrock, Sk.te,
Devil's bird, Buidhein, Buidheag Bhuachair; while Thompson, o f Ireland, mentions only the following.—
Yellow Bunting, Yellow Ammer, and Yellow Yorlin. Of all these terms that o f Aellow Bunting ,s
undoubtedly the most co rre c t; but YeUowhammer is the one by which it » generally known to the
school-, the herd-, and the plough-boy. Like those sturdy sons of the soil, it is strictly a native of, and a
permanent r e s id e d in, this country (for it never leaves us either in summer o r winter), and is alike common
in every district, from north to south and from east to west, from the low fl.mat.le county of L.ncolnslnre
to the,high peaks o f Derbyshire, from the Lotliians to the hills of Bosshire.
In the early mornings the Yellowhammer may be seen on the dew-bespangled sprays o f the field-s.de, and
there while perched on some prominent twig, emits his singnlar ditty long before the vernal m.grants
have'arrived. As summer advances, no bird is more showy, nor is there one whose appearance is more
striking aiming the hedges which skirt the green lan es; the dense coppice and the thick wood he sh uns; it
• " ,1„ „ . a , low valleys, and the bushes which grow on commons and wastes, that the
„ ■ , I to hi, tastes It has now paired, and the couples YeUowhammer nud* a honie bo w** wfl.it». - . . . o nly w, a.i<<t for the
thorn-bnsh to be covered with t ew « . ■ ■: the ditch-side overgrown w.th grasses and herbage, before they
commence their nests.
by thfc wooden bridge a bird flew up
, . w the cow-boy ns he scrambled down
the mivty dewberry. Let us stoop
K. :• »A its nisi Tfcp brook we need not dread,
tj-j ^dafis. inpMWh a bee to drown,
As it diatP haroske*. > ■ its pebbly bed
Beneath ihe bunch w
Its busfeswids toll bsiI tyi*
Of bleached stubbfan«** the- w>th*-re
That last year’s bam*i left upon t3w h
•
Five eggs, pen-scribbW o’er with k»» duar she!»,
Resembling writing scrawls, which Itawy reads
As Nature's poesy and pastoral ap#*:
They aw the YeHowhammer’s ; and she dwell*
Most poet-like ’mid br^oks and flowery weeds.
, t,lp YeUowhammer is associated with the Rubus fmtlcosus from the period
D u n u g spring an so ^ ^ fr„;ti the wcll-k„ow,|Blackberry; but when the spring is past
■ o f its flowering to ^ Usclf to the ope„ fields and seeks its food on the groond, where
and summer „„all-shelled mollitsks, fee. As winter approaches, it assembles in flocks,
“ I “ i w i hVioehe. ami Sparrows around'tl.e out.Bu.ding ricks, and even ventures withm the pree.net.
o f die farmyard in^ quest of grain or other kinds of food which such places afford. Soon, however, spr.ug ■
in a i 'ears, and with it comes a cl.m.ge o f d ie t; for insects and their larvte are then eagerly d e v o a rc d -
a^:«rl of food with which t h e Buntings also feed their offspring.
a kind o f food colouring as the Yellowhammer; the differem cs ... this
No one o f our nat.ve birds ^ r a ria.ions- being confined to the intensity or
respect are however, too trm = markings on the head. Some «tide, have this p art
7 " ; >-*— 0 i m . & > - :
(!r the fac e ; others, again, have the head and cheeks suffused with dark brown, w.thout a trace o f the