This bird is smaller than the snow bunting, has a short, strong yellow beak, with a black point; the head is nearly flat, the frontal band light chestnut; the upper part of the neck and back grey, with black streaks, most numerous on the back, causing a resemblance to the female yellowhammer; feet black.
The breast of the female is of a deeper colour than the male’e.
Observations.—This species, inhabiting the cold regions of Europe, is never found in great numbers. In Thuringia, and some other provinces of Germany, they are seen generally every year, in March, the time of passage, settling in pairs along the high roads, searching for a few undigested grains in the dung of animals. Their song is shrill, tolerably pleasing, and interrupted like the yellowhammer’r. They may be easily kept in the house, either caged or not, feeding them on oats, bread, hemp, and other seeds. These birds also appear uneasy during the night, especially in the pairing season, uttering their call amidst the darkness. Some are occasionally met with of a dull orange on the upper part of the body, streaked with yellow on the head, and deep orange on the back. These are young birds. This species is caught in the same manner as the snow bunting.
THE YELLOWHAMMER.
Emberiza citrinella, Linnæus; Le Bruant, Buffon; Der Goldammer, Bechstein.
However well known this bird may be, it is still necessary that it should be described minutely, as the young males and old females are often confounded with one another. It is six inches and a half in length, of which the forked tail measures three. The beak, five lines long, is dark brown in summer, and ash grey in winter; the feet are of a light brown. The head of the old males is of a fine yellow, generally having some streaks of dark olive scattered over the top and on the cheeks; it is only in very old birds that the head and neck are of a golden yellow, without any mixture; the upper part of the neck is olive; the back black, mingled with reddish grey; the feathers have black up the middle, and the edges reddish grey; the rump is of a deep red; the throat, with the under part of the neck and the belly, are yellow, more or less golden; the breast, especially its sides, as well as the small coverts of the tail, is streaked with yellow and red.
YELLOWHAMMER.
The female is rather smaller than the male; the yellow of the head, neck, and throat, is scarcely seen through the spots scattered over it, which are brown on the head and cheeks, and olive-coloured on the neck; the breast is only speckled with rust red, and the wing coverts with reddish white, so that at a distance it appears rather brown than yellow.