is rather of a retiring disposition, the cock only shewing
himself openly, while the hen must be sought to be seen.
The song has some resemblance to that of the Yellow
Hammer, but, though its first syllables have a strong
metallic ring, it is less loud and on the whole more plaintive.
The traveller in early summer in Norway, and probably the
same is true with regard to Sweden and Finland, sees the
Ortolan frequently by the roadside, sitting on the rough
fences of split deal, so characteristic of Scandinavian agriculture,
which enclose every plot of cleared land, or occasionally
shifting its position to the roof of some log-hut; and the
peasant of those countries trusts no bird so fully as a herald
of warm and settled weather. Thus its far from melodious
notes have a charm for him which dwellers in more temperate
climates can scarcely appreciate. From the whole of
Europe this bird retires as soon as the breeding-season is
over, its southward return beginning of course soonest in the
north, and when approaching the shores of the Mediterranean
it collects in large flocks. On both of its migratory journeys
it is eagerly sought by bird-catchers, and enormous numbers
are netted and fattened for the table. It lends itself
easily to their designs, for it is caught without much trouble,
and seems to surpass all its congeners in the greediness
with which it devours the food, chiefly oats and millet, set
before it in captivity, until its body becomes coated with a
thick layer of fat, only interrupted by a narrow line along
the keel of the sternum. The flavour of the delicate morsel
it then presents is almost proverbial. Its natural diet consists
as much of insects—beetles of the family Curculionidce
especially—as of grain or other seeds.
The adult male in summer has the bill reddish-brown,
the palatal knob small: the irides brown : head and nape
greenish-grey, sometimes the one and sometimes the other
tint prevailing, and occasionally streaked along the crown
with dusky-brown; the orbits light yellow; the feathers on
the hack very dark brown along the shaft, but rufous on each
side passing into olive near the edge; small upper wing-
coverts wood-brown with paler edges; primaries and secondaries
dusky, with a very narrow light-coloured outer margin,
in some examples rufous in others yellow; tertials and
larger wing-coverts blackish-brown with broad rufous or
ochreous edges; upper tail-coverts wood-brown with obscure
dusky streaks ; tail-quills blackish-brown, the middle pair
broadly and the rest narrowly edged with ochreous, and the
two * outer pairs with an oblique white patch on the inner
web; the chin and throat yellowish-green, in some examples
passing into olive-grey on the upper part of the breast, in
others only becoming paler, with dusky arrow-headed spots ;
the rest of the lower parts reddish-buff, deepest on the breast
and palest near the vent; flanks tinged with wood-brown ;
inner wing-coverts and axillaries, pale greyish-white, often
tinged with yellow, and the former mottled with _ dusky.
legs, toes and claws, pale brownish-orange.
The whole length is six inches and one quarter. From
the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches and a
half: the second, third and fourth primaries nearly equal,
and the longest in the wing ; the fifth considerably shorter
than the fourth.
The female usually has the head greyer, and more distinctly
streaked with brown; immediately behind the nostril
is a pale ochreous patch ; the chin and throat paler, with a
distinct line of dusky spots running from the base of the
lower mandible on each side; the upper part of the breast
clouded and mottled with dusky brown, and the reddish-
buff below, as well as the tints of the plumage generally,
less vivid; but other females are said to differ but little,
except in paler coloration, from some of the males.
Young birds of the year resemble the female in her
ordinary plumage, but the yellow tints on the head seem to
be brighter, and the spots on the breast are more distinct.
* Mr. Borrer’s specimen, above mentioned, was said to have had the three
outer pairs so marked. Unfortunately it has since been accidentally destroyed.