Page:Bird Life Throughout the Year (Salter, 1913).djvu/236

162 ledges, bearing not the least resemblance to their elders, young Black-headed Gulls in mixed brown and white livery, hailing from their gullery upon some Norfolk "broad" or North Lancashire "moss," while, further to complicate matters, the young Common Gulls, bred upon the Highland lochs, now make their appearance, to be dubbed "blue" or "speckled" gulls by the east coast fishermen. One welcomes such a distinctive mark as the black collar by which the young Kittiwake may be known in a moment. With the larger gulls the adult dress is only gradually assumed; apparently not till the fourth or fifth year is it complete in every detail. The relationship of the young Cormorants, brown-backed and white-fronted, to their sable elders, is also far from being evident at the first glance.

Though bird-voices in August are quiet and subdued, yet a few songs break the general silence. Foremost are those of the several members of the bunting family,—late in song because late to breed. The Yellow-hammer's lilt is still heard by the dusty roadside, where as a perch he seems to prefer the telegraph wires to the twigs of bush and brier which suit the taste of finch and linnet. How many know the Cirl Bunting?—a yellow-hammer but for his black throat and for his song which is in a different key and wants the yellow-hammer's final flourish, being in fact a monotonous trill, to be syllabled as "zi, zi, zi."