Ortolan Bunting-.
Emberiza hortulana, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 84.
— Badensis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. N a t, tom. i. p. 873.
----------- chlorocephala, Gmel. ib., p. 887.
—-----— Tunstallii, Lath. Ind. Orn., voL i. p. 418.
— Mdlheyeims, Sparrm. Mus. Carls., tom. i. tab. 21.
— cilrinetta, var., Flem. Hist. Brit. Anim., p. 77.
— pinguescens, Brehm, Vog. DeutsebL, tom. i. p. 296.
Citrinella hortulana, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst p. 142.
Hortulanus chlorocephalus, Bonap. in Parz. C at Ois. d‘Enr., p. 4. sp. 131
Qlycyspina hortulana, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 128.
B irds, not only co n trib u te to the pleasure o f man by their sougs, their thousand actions, interesting ways,
and varied habits and economies, but they also contribute their fair share towards bis sustenance. Besides
the amount afforded by the great group o f Gallinaceæ, the marsh-, and water-birds, many of the smaller
species form no inconsiderable item in supplying his wants and desires. In the acquirement of delicacies
for the pampering o f his appetite many devices are resorted to, some o f which are accompanied by a
degree o f cruelty much to be deprecated : I allude to the means adopted to o b tain . the celebrated “ pâté de
foie gras,” to the repeated takings o f the nest o f the esculent Swallow, and the continued robbery of the
eggs o f the Plover—acts which cause the Goose to die a miserable death, the Swallow to exhaust itself
in the reconstruction o f its glutinous cradle, and the Plover to weaken its system by a forced reproduction
o f its eggs. In E u ro p e three little insessorial birds are especially regarded as delicacies for the table—the
Wheatear, the Beccafico, and the Ortolan. The last o f these (the bird represented on the accompanying
P late), which, although not iudigeoous to our island, is sometimes found here, is sent from the continent
to London by thousands, but the great bulk o f the community, the middle class and the poor, never see
o r partake of them ; it is the noble and wealthy epicures alone who can afford to gratify their appetites
with this costly “ bonne bouche.” The marchioness and the lady o f the alderman consult their poulterers
as to the more choice viands for the summer season, that nothing may be wanting for their next recherché
dinner. A dish o f Ortolans being the “ chose,” the fattening-cage is resorted to, and a dozen o r more are
taken ont and killed if they have not already been trampled to death by their companions, or died during
the night from apoplexy o r sheer obesity, the little birds, which in a state of nature scarcely exceed the size
o f a Tit, having become a mass o f fat the appearance o f which is very unlike that o f an ordinary plucked
Bunting. This essence o f millet and canary-aeed is certainly not to be despised ; and the clubman of our
great metropolis frequently doubles the amount of bis diuuer-biil by ordering a couple of Ortolans. Alas
for the fate o f the little birds ! which have been netted in Italy, Savoy, and France, and sent hither to be
fattened and stifled in low cages, where they Lave not -sufficient room to flatter their wings, for the special
gratification o f those whose gustatory enjoyments dominate over their other senses. The procuring o f a
string o f Larks is, comparatively speaking, unattended with cruelty ; a trapped Wheatear is killed in a
moment, a Beccafico is destroyed with shot, or taken from the meshes o f a net and immediately dispatched ;
but the Ortolan, captured during his migration from the southern to the northern parts o f Europe, where
he would otherwise have paired, loved, ami bred, terminates the last summer o f his existence in the cruel
manner above described.
I t is somewhat surprising that a bird s*.> common tin the contiuent, and which is a migrant " ithal, should
not have been more frequently seen in this country ; few, however, as are the instances of its occurrence, they
are sufficient to entitle it to a place in our avifauna. The first specimen recorded as having been taken
in England was captured by a London birdcatcher in Marylebone Fields, and was figured in Brown’s
‘ Illustrations of Zoology,’ a work published in 1776: this is the example described by Latham in the third
volume of his ‘ Synopsis o f Birds,’ and moreover was the source, according to Yarrell, from which Gmelin,
Lewin, Montagu, and others copied their descriptions. Bewick’s figure was taken from a specimen caught
at sea off the Yorkshire coast by the master of a trading vessel, and which subsequently passed into the
possession of G. T. Fox, Esq. Another was killed near Manchester in 1827. A fourth, taken near London,
in a birdcatcher’s net, in 1837, along with Yellow Buntings, was deposited in the aviary o f the Zoological
Society o f London in the Regent's Park. The bird is said to have been seen in Norfolk. Mr. Rodd has
recorded that an example was killed at Treseoe. one o f the Scilly Islands, in 1851 ; the next year one was