[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS of the bigness of a sparrow. Its head is of a greenish yellow, spotted with brown; the throat, and belly are yellow; the breast and sides, under the wings, mingled with red; and the bird has a pretty note, not unlike that of the linnet. They build their nests on the ground, near some bush where the female lays five or six eggs. This bird is often seen perched on the finger of some poor man or woman in the streets of London, in a state of complete tameness; but we understand that it is the transitory effect of intoxication, and that soon after the bird is bought and brought home, it dies, overcome by the power of the laudanum that has been given him.
This bird feeds on various sorts of insects, and all kinds of seeds, and is common in every lane, on every hedge throughout the country, flitting before the traveller, and fluttering about the bushes on the side of the road. Happily for him we are accustomed to grosser kinds of food than the natives of Italy, where the Yellow Hammer falls a daily victim to the delicacy of the table, and where his flesh is esteemed a very luscious eating. There he is often fattened, like the Ortolan, for the purpose of gratifying the palate of the epicures.
