The call note of this species, when disturbed, is a trit, trit, trit, and on the wing tisit.
It may always be distinguished with certainty from its much rarer relative, the Cirl Bunting, by the fact that it has no black upon its chin.
The female Yellow Hammer is a trifle smaller than her mate, is much less yellow, and the markings on her head are darker. Both sexes take a share in the work of incubation.
YELLOW HAMMER’S NEST AND EGGS.
The nest is built in hedge banks, at the foot of light open bushes, under brambles, and sometimes even in gorse bushes and thick evergreen hedges at a considerable height from the ground. It is composed of dry grass, rootlets, and moss on the outside, with an inner lining of fine, dead grass and horsehair.
The eggs, numbering from four to six, are of a dingy white ground colour, tinged with purple, streaked, spotted, and blotched with dark purplish-brown. The streaks or scribblings generally end in a spot, and, on account of their similarity to the marks made by a pen, the bird is known in many parts of the country as the “Writing Lark.”
This species, although commencing to breed in April, sometimes has eggs as late even as September.
