Yellowhammer

As we were advancing to the attack and to support the Alabama brigade in our front, and which had given way and were stricken with fear, some of the boys of our regiment would laugh at them, and ask what they were running for, and would commence to say "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" like the bird called the yellowhammer, "Flicker! flicker! flicker!" ❋ Sam R. Watkins (N/A)

The yellowhammer is the most persistent individually, but I think the blackbirds when listened to are the masters of the fields. ❋ Richard Jefferies (1867)

An intriguing letter from Will County, Illinois, reported that shitepoke denoted a crane, but mentioned local use of the bird name "yellowhammer" for "dirty and disreputable ... not necessarily poor" natives. ❋ Unknown (1976)

A cock yellowhammer sings insistently from a laburnum tree as I quit the lanes and walk woodland paths where last anemones wilt into emerald moss. ❋ Jim Perrin (2010)

At the crest of the hill the wood gives way to fields, and a yellowhammer called and flew along the hedge. ❋ TIM DEE (2009)

I told the boys that a yellowhammer had been the first special bird I had noted on my very first proper rather than back-garden bird-watching outing aged seven, and how my dad and I had struggled to clinch the identification. ❋ TIM DEE (2009)

With yellow breast and head of solid gold. admin Uncategorized john clare, randall couch, the yellowhammer ❋ Unknown (2005)

DEAR MR. PUNCH, -- I wonder if any of your intelligent readers have noticed the wonderful adaptability of Nature, of which I send you the following remarkable instance: -- The yellowhammer, which we are always told sings, "A little bit of bread and no che-e-ese," has (unless my ears grossly deceive me) changed its words this year to "A little bit of cheese and no bre-e-ead!" ❋ Various (N/A)

The yellowhammer and the hedge sparrow tell over their short, recurring staves. ❋ Unknown (1917)

It was a flicker, or yellowhammer, a beautiful bird of the South about the size of a ❋ John Allan (1914)

The game she hunted was the squirrel tossing his grey body through the branches of pine and cedar, the quail calling from the hillsides, the cottontail scampering through the underbrush, the yellowhammer, the woodpecker, the wide winged butterflies sailing through the orchard and across the meadow lands. ❋ Jackson Gregory (1912)

_There_ were the sand-banks by the sea, with every tree-top visible; _there_ was the fir-tree that the yellowhammer always built in; the stream ran milk-white after the heavy thaw, and the meadow was beginning to grow green. ❋ Martin Andersen Nex�� (1911)

A pall of ominous silence hung over this labyrinth of desolation, broken only by the chirp of bluebird or the distant call of the yellowhammer. ❋ Thomas Dixon (1905)

I have known a black-fishing expedition stopped because a "yellow yite," or yellowhammer, hovered round the gang when they were setting out. ❋ Unknown (1898)

A dead bird or two were passed, lying in the snow, claws in air and already stiff: a felt and a yellowhammer were side by side at the bottom of the hill. ❋ Ernest Gambier-Parry (1894)

But it is not only a delight to me to listen to the lark singing at heaven's gate and to the vesper nightingale in the oak copse -- the singer of a golden throat and wondrous artistry; I also love the smaller vocalists -- the modest shufewing and the lesser whitethroat and the yellowhammer with his simple chant. ❋ Unknown (1881)

Dragon Inn. This charming bird is quite common in the neighbourhood, although, as elsewhere in England, the natives know it not by its book name, nor by any other, and do not distinguish it from its less engaging cousin, the yellowhammer. ❋ Unknown (1881)

You could hardly take the time to wash the powder-grime off your hands and face before you rushed to the table; and if you had brought home a yellowhammer you left it with your gun on the back porch, and perhaps the cat got it and saved you the trouble of cleaning it. ❋ William Dean Howells (1878)