Marty was quite sure he saw a yellow-hammer on the boughs of the great ash, and while he was peeping, he missed the sight of a white-throated stoat, which had run across the path and was described with much fervour by the junior Tommy. ❋ Unknown (2004)
He could see no birds except a yellow-hammer that sat on the topmost spray of a bush and sang: 'Little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese', over and over again in a most maddening manner. ❋ Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 (1951)
Her attention centered finally on a yellow-hammer, which was industriously boring the trunk of a dead chestnut. ❋ Waldron Baily (N/A)
In the British Islands by far the commonest species of bunting is the yellow-hammer (_E. citrinella_), but the true bunting (or corn-bunting, or bunting-lark, as it is called in some districts) is a very well-known bird, while the reed-bunting (_E. schoeniclus_) frequents marshy soils almost to the exclusion of the two former. ❋ Various (N/A)
I felt sorry for the yellow-hammer Alabamians, they looked so hacked, and answered back never a word. ❋ Sam R. Watkins (N/A)
Amongst these are the polar hare and fox, the ermine, the campagnol, often even the wolf and reindeer, besides the owl, yellow-hammer, and some other birds. ❋ Various (N/A)
Towards the yellow-hammer, or yellow-yite -- bird of beautiful plumage though it be -- because it is the subject of an unaccountable superstitious notion, which credits it with drinking a drop of the devil's blood every May morning, the children of Scotland cherish no inconsiderable contempt, which finds expression in the rhyme: -- ❋ Robert Ford (N/A)
Birds sang a little, and a yellow-hammer cried out for a little bit of bread and no cheese. ❋ Blyton, Enid (1949)
The birds, which had stopped singing and calling, began to chirp again, and a yellow-hammer gave his familiar cry. ❋ Blyton, Enid (1949)
At least the two boys did - Diana didn't do much seeking for birds and flowers - she 'mooned along-, as the boys called it, enjoying the smells, the sounds and the sights of the countryside - the smell of the meadowsweet, the blue of the chicory, the queer little trill of the yellow-hammer, and the blue flash of the kingfisher as he flew past them, crying 'tee-tee-tee! ❋ Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 (1949)
Cotswolds; a yellow-hammer, keeping always a few paces ahead, twittered from quickset boughs nine encouraging notes that drowned the echoes of ancient controversies. ❋ Compton MacKenzie (1927)
How confidently that yellow-hammer repeats his song! ❋ Compton MacKenzie (1927)
The song of the yellow-hammer was louder in the quickset hedge; the trees burned with a sharper green; the road urged his feet. ❋ Compton MacKenzie (1927)
The yellow-hammer was formerly the object of much persecution, since it was believed that it received three drops of the devil's blood on its feather every May morning, and never appeared without presaging ill luck. ❋ Elliott O'Donnell (1918)
As Hume remarks: "nothing can exceed the beauty or variety of markings, which are a combination of bold blotches, clouds and spots, with delicate, intricately woven lines, recalling somewhat ... those of our early favourite -- the yellow-hammer." ❋ Douglas Dewar (1916)
The yellow-hammer is heard on the telegraph wire, and the voices of children in the wood, and the dust of white English country roads is smelled at evening. ❋ Unknown (1915)
I could hear no voices but those of the birds, small and great, the constant song sparrows, the clink of a yellow-hammer over in the woods, and the far conversation of some deliberate crows. ❋ Unknown (1910)
I have known a black-fishing expedition stopped because a "yellow yite," or yellow-hammer, hovered round the gang when they were setting out. ❋ Unknown (1898)
Personally, I would rather hear the yellow-hammer utter his sharp monotonous notes, with the dropping cadence at the end, than that he should try to imitate the nightingale. ❋ Arthur Christopher Benson (1893)
But here the sharp song of the yellow-hammer from the hedge, or the cry of the owl from the spinney, come pure and keen through the thin air, purged of all uncertain murmurs. ❋ Arthur Christopher Benson (1893)
