BUNTING (origin obscure). One of a group of seed-eating birds, sometimes classified as the family EmberiziMe, intermediate bet ween the finches and the starliegs. The most marked char acteristics are a short, straight, conical hill, an gular gape, and a hard, rounded knob on the in ner surface of the tipper mandible. The typical species is the British co•n-bunting (Biabe•iza niiliaria)—o bird eonsiderably larger than a house sparrow, with darker streaks on the upper parts. whitish brown, with spots and lines of dark brown on the under parts, and with a slightly forked tail. It is numerous, particularly in low-eultivate4I grounds, in most parts of Eu rope, extending also into Asia. living in pairs during spring and summer, but in flocks in win ter and often visiting barnyards at that season, along with chaffinches and sparrows. This bunt ing often passes the night on the ground in stub ble-fields, and is taken in the nets employed for catching larks. and brought with them to market. It usually builds its nest on or very near the ground. Its notes are harsh and unmusical.
The reed-bunting (Entheriza schaniclus) is com mon in marshy situations; a very pretty little bird with black head and throat, strikingly contrasted with the white nape and sides of the neck. The eirl bunting (Ent beriza eirlus I , of which the head is olive-green, with black streaks and with patches of bright lemon-yellow on the cheeks and over the eyes, belongs chiefly to the south of Europe and the north of Africa. Other common European species are the yellow-hammer (Emberiza eitrinollo) and the ortolan (Ern /ATI= llorlulana), elsewhere described. The term is lit tle used popularly in America, but applied in the older books to several more or less related birds. as the snow-bunting (q.v.), the' black throated hunting (see DICK-CISSEL), the bay winged bunting (See VESPER-SPARROW), the lark hunting (q.v.), the cow-bird, and bobolink. See Plate of BUNTINGS.