in Cirl bunting. [Introduced by Latham 1783, to render Linnæus’s name Emberiza Cirlus; Cirlus having been the name used by Aldrovandi (1600, Orn. II. 855), as a latinized form of cirlo ‘name applied by the Bolognese to the Zigolo nero’; probably from zirlare to whistle as a thrush. See Count Salvatori, Elenco degli Uccelli Italiani (1887), 163.] Name of a species of BUNTING, Emberiza Cirlus.
[1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 246/2. The Cirlus [hath] the Bill thick and short.]
1783. Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, II. 190.
1802. Montagu, Ornith. Dict., s.v. Bunting, Cirl.
1812. Pennant, Zool., I. 438. The discovery of the Cirl Bunting, as a British bird … in Devonshire in … 1800.
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist, 155. Mr. Montagu’s failure in being able to raise the young of the cirl bunting, until he discovered, that they required grasshoppers.
