E m b e r iza c ir l u s , Linnaeus*.
THE CIRL-BUNTINH.
Emberiza cirlus.
A l t h o u g h this bird was thought by Montagu, who first
added its name to the British catalogue, to be restricted to our
most westerly counties—Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, it
has since been found to possess a much wider range throughout
the south of England. It was discovered by him near
Kingsbridge in the winter of .1800, among flocks of Yellow
Buntings and Chaffinches, from which lie obtained several
specimens of both sexes, as almost simultaneously recorded
by himself and Latham. In the following summer it was
found breeding in Devonshire, and an account of the mode by
which he successfully reared the young, and of their habits
* Syst. JSTat. Ed 12, i. p. 311 (1766).
in confinement, was communicated to the Linnean Society
by Montagu (Trans. Linn. Soc. vii. pp. 276-280).
The Cirl-Bunting is generally found near the south coast,
and with us is everywhere very local. In most of its habits
it resembles the Yellow Bunting, but is more shy and unobtrusive,
and even where it is pretty plentiful is far less
easily observed from its chiefly frequenting the tops of higher
trees, particularly elms, whence the male may be heard
singing, and some patience is often required to obtain a sight
of the bird upon the upper branch of a tall, leafy tree. The
song is tremulous and resembles that of the commoner species,
but is uttered rather more quickly, and wants the long final
note, so that no one once acquainted with it ought to mistake
it. It is more habitually delivered in the afternoon than at
any other time of the day, and is continued till the middle
or end of August, or even later. The female has but a
single call-note. The nest is generally composed of bents,
placed in situations similar to those chosen by the Yellow
Bunting, and is seldom far from the clump or row of elms
which the male affects while singing. In structure it
often varies, some examples being chiefly built of green moss
lined with hair, while others are lined with fibrous roots.
The eggs are four or five in number, of a dull white, tinged
with bluish-grey, spotted, blotched and veined with dark
liver-brown, almost black, the markings being mostly very
well defined, and among them are generally patches of pale
lavender; they measure from ’96 to *8 by from *67 to *61
in. The young when hatched are supplied by the parents
almost solely with grasshoppers, and the discovery of this
fact ensured Montagu’s success in treating those which he
took from the nest. More recently 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, mixed with wheat,
flour and fine gravel, proved excellent food for some of the
young, which were reared without difficulty. Blytli in the
course of some admirable notes on the habits of this bird
(Nat. ii. p. 842), states that he has found the remains of