The Yellow Bunting, well known under its universal name of Yellow Hammer, says “A Son of the Marshes,” “is a very handsome bird and a very common one. The plumage is splashed with rich yellows, warm red-browns and darker streaks; this is his nesting suit. In winter the colouring is not quite so gay. Where farms or farm-buildings show, you will be sure to find Yellow Hammers round about them. Stand just inside the stable, after the horses have left it in the morning for their work in the fields, and look at the birds gathered round the open door, all busily picking up the grains of oats that have fallen from the nose-bags. A fine mid-April morning suits the bird to perfection, for he droops his wings, spreads his tail out, and glides here and there pecking up as he goes, in the most dainty manner. Then, for a time, he visits the trees.
The lowering of the wings, until they almost touch the ground, and the spreading out of the tail, is a peculiar trait seen more or less in the whole of the Bunting family.
Trees and fields are necessary to the well-being of the Yellow-Hammer, which may be considered one of the farmer’s friends; for at certain seasons he, as well as others of his family, live in the fields, only leaving them to rest, or roost in the trees that surround them. Innocent as the creature is in all its ways and means of living, superstition has linked its name with evil. I have been assured, in the most solemn manner, that the badger, the toad, and the Yellow Hammer are all in league with the Prince of Darkness.”
The Cirl Bunting, often called the French Yellow Hammer, which is distinguished from the commoner bird by the dark throat gorget, is more numerous at times than it is supposed to be. In fact it is becoming fairly common as a resident species.
The Yellow Hammer is the size of a Sparrow but longer and more elegant. Throat, underparts, and crown of the full-grown male, golden-yellow; mantle rust-red merging into green. The bill is peculiar, the lower half is compressed, and the upper half is so formed that it is adapted for shelling seeds. Its well built nest is placed low down among the bushes. It lays five eggs which have dark markings on a light ground.
