THE YELLOW HAMMER.
Who does not know this almost universally distributed bird in our country, with its dress of almost canary-like yellow, streaked with brown, and short though oft-repeated song? On furze-clad commons, along cultivated hedgerows, and on railway embankments close to busy London town, and in far-away parts of the country alike, it may be heard morning, noon, and night persistently going over its familiar notes, which always seem to me to accord best with the drowsiness of a hot summer’s day. Indeed, I must confess that at such times its reiteration has sent me to sleep.
YELLOW HAMMER ON NEST.
It has been variously represented by the characters of the alphabet, as the following examples will show: tic-tic-tic-e-ereze, te, te, te, te, te, te, twyee; chick, chick, churr; chit-chit-chierre-r-r. By far the most popular rendering of it in England, however, is the somewhat hackneyed phrase, “A little bit of bread and no cheese.” In Scotland it becomes, “Deil, deil, deil tak ye,” a supposed imprecation upon boys who steal its eggs.
There is also a curious legend in the North to the effect that Satan supplies the bird with half a drop of his blood every morning wherewith to mark its eggs with the greatly varied scribbling lines that appear upon them.
The song, although more musical than that of the Corn Bunting, is considered by many people to be a monotonous performance. The poet Grahame was evidently aware of this when he wrote the lines:
“Even in a bird the simplest notes have charms
For me: I even love the yellow hammer’s song.”