The song of the yellow-hammer consists of little more than a monotone, repeated quickly several times, some emphasis being laid on the last note, which is also uttered at greater length. It is almost the only bird whose note is heard in the heat of a summer's day. The cow-boys in some parts of the country have given the following interpretation to the yellow-hammer's song:— "A lit—tle bit of bread, and no cheese."

In Devonshire it [the yellowhammer] goes by the names of "Little-bread-and-no-cheese," and "Gladdy." Of the latter name I do not know the origin; that of the former is clear enough; for if the words "A little bit of bread and no cheese" be chanted rapidly in one note, descending at the word "cheese," the performance, both in matter and style, will bear a close resemblance to the bird's song.

[A]s twilight sets in, the Yellow Hammer may still be heard, and is perhaps the last bird to give a parting note to the retiring day, with the exception of his congener the Corn-Bunting, who sings till it is quite dusk. Country people imitate the note of the Yellow Hammer by the words, "a little bit of bread and no cheese," the accent on the last word; but sometimes the utterance alters in tone, the request being for a "little bit of bread and no cheese," the last word being dropped and the accent on the penultimate.

It is delightful to hear the yellowhammer's song—his only song: "A little bit of bread and no c h e e s e."

"A little bit of bread and no cheese!" cry the yellowhammers petulantly. But no one takes any notice of them.

The Africans, it seems, have the British countryman's habit of making a phonetically similar sentence out of a bird's call. The yellow-hammer, for instance, is supposed to say "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese". In Zande, the laughing dove calls urugu nolu akpi akpi, which can be translated as "the planter of eleusine [a local cereal] will die".

In Europe the song of the Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) can be heard, with a little poetic licence, as ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’, the Quail (Coturnix coturnix) as ‘wet my lips’.

A little bit of bread and no cheese

Meaning

Intj