NATURE NOTES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23203, 14 December 1940, Page 4

NATURE NOTES

From Temuka comes a request for Information regarding the yellow hammer; whether it is a native; if not, ■where does it come from; and is it a relation of the canary? The home of the yellow hammer is Europe; it is very common in the open country in Great Britain. It is probable that the birds imported to New Zealand from 1862 onwards came from

England. Possibly they were caught on the Continent to the order of bird dealers in England, who forwarded them on here to the various acclimatisation societies. The common name in England is yellow bunting. The buntings are a

group of birds closely allied to the finches; the canary belongs also to the finch family. Though there are something like 12 kinds of bunting found in England, only two kinds have established in New Zealand, the yellow hammer and the cirl bunting. The word "hammer” is said to be a corruption of “ammer,” the German equivalent of bunting. The male bird has the head and neck yellow, with dark streaks across the forehead and on the top and sides of the head. The upper surface is

brownish, the lower back and upper tail are almost : chestnut, while the abdomen and under tail are yellow. The female has much less yellow and more dark greenish on the head and neck. Both birds have the tail slightly forked. White side tail feathers are very conspicuous in flight. Nests are not usually found before November, and then mostly near the

THE YELLOW HAMMER

(By L, W. McCaskill)

ground—low down on a shrub, among grass, on a bank, or even on the ground. A base of dry grass, stalks, roots, and moss will be lined with hair or fine grass. Three to five eggs are laid. The Scottish peasants used to say that the bird was on familiar terms with the evil being, who supplied it with a drop of blood to paint the eggs. The eggs are usually purplish white or brownish in ground colour, streaked and veined with red-dish-purple over fainter markings of violet-grey. A few irregular lines or “scribbles” which are often present explain another English name of “scribbling lark." Young birds are fed on insects. The adults also eat small beetles and moths, and their larvae. Especially in the autumn they are very partial to

seeds of all kinds, and incur the enmity of the farmer by raiding his crops. They make quite an attractive sight as they move round in flocks with their undulating flight. Yellow hammers are not often seen in the towns, but their characteristic song is to be heard in all parts of the country from spring to autumn. They seem to prefer the top of a hedge or shri|b as a singing platform. The first note is repeated several and followed by two other notes, the first sharp, the/ second long drawn out. The commonest vocalisa-

tion! is "A little bit of bread and no cheese.” The Scottish peasants insisted it was, “Deil, deil, deil, deil tak ye.” One writer, struck by the rather plaintive minor key, considered that thp yellow hammer was a doleful pessimist, saying, “What, what, what, d'you think’ll happen to ME, please. Few birds in New Zealand sing so persistently in the heat of the day. The call note is a loud “tchick,” heard most frequently when the birds congregate in flocks in the winter. Another note is heard during the courtship time. The male will swagger round the female with his wings drooped and his crest raised. At the same time, he may open and close his tail feathers, to display the long,

white marks. “He is so nearly inarticulate that he can only say ‘jim, but this seems to serve his purpose well enough."