ORTOLAN.
ORTOLAN BUNTING.
Emberiza hortulana, LinnjBus. Latham.
SXLBY. JXNYNS. GOULD.
chlorocephala, MONTAGU. BEWICK.
Tunstalli, Lai HAM.
Emberiza— Hortulana—Of, or pertaining to gardens.
Hoitus—A garden.
THIS is an abundant species in many parts of the European continent,
and is found also in plenty on the northern shores of Africa,
as well as in Asia Minor, ('entral Asia, and the East Indies. In
Europe, it occurs plentifully in France, Spain, and the other southern
countries that herder on the Mediterranean, occasionally in Holland
and also in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, where it even produces
its young; and in Lapland.
A specimen of this bird was taken oft' the Yorkshire coast, in the
month of May, 1822, by the master of a merchant vessel; Bewick
says that about the same time a pair were seen in the garden at
Cherry-bum, on the banks of the Tyne. Another possessed by Marmaduke
Tnnstal, Esq., had been taken some time previously, in St.
Mary-la-bonne Fields, London, by a bird-catcher; a third was killed
near Manchester, in Noy ember, 1827; and a fourth was caught near
London, in company with Yellow Buntings, by another member of
the above-named fraternity. 'La mala compagina c quella che mena
uomini alia turca;' 'Bad company leads to the gallows,' says the
Italian proverb, and the Ortolan Bunting is not the first that has
experienced the truth of it. In the ' Account of the Birds found in
Norfolk,' by John Henry Gurney, and "William Richard Fisher, Esqrs.,
one is mentioned as having been seen by them, which was said to
have been killed near Norwich. One is also recorded by Edward
Hearle Rodd, Esq., of Trebartha Hall, in the 'Zoologist,' page 3277,
as having been obtained at Tresco Abbey, Trescoe, one of the Scilly
Islands on or about the 8th. of October, 1851. One was shot on the
27th. of April in the year 1852, close to the town of Worthing,