The Ortolan is essentially a pet bird with the gourmet. The present is by no means an inopportune moment for sketching the natural economy and cuisine of these " lumps of celestial fatness," as they have been fondly called by epicures.

The Ortolan is a species of Fringillidce: it is the Hortulanus of Gesner and others; Miliaria pinguescens of Frisch; Emberira hortulana of Linnaeus; Ortolano of the Italians generally; Tordino berlueeio of the Venetians; Garten Ammer and Feltamer of the Germans; and Gerste Kneu of the Netherlanders. Willoughby writes the name Hortulane; and Montague terms it the Greenheaded Bunting.

The French have a fanciful derivation of the name: they say it is from the Italian word for gardener, which is from the Latin hortus (garden); because, according to Menage, in Italy, where the bird is common, it is quite at home in the hedges of gardens.

The male bird has the throat, a circle round the eyes, and a narrow band springing from the angle of the bill, yellow; these two yellow spaces being separated by a blackish grey dash; head and neck grey, with a tinge of olive, and small brown spots; feathers of the upper parts, reddish on their edges, and black in the middle; breast, belly, and abdomen reddish bay; feathers terminating with ash-colour; tail blackish, a considerable portion of the two external feathers white on their internal barbs; bill and feet inclining to flesh-colour; iris, brown; length, rather more than six inches. The female is generally not so deep in colour as the male, and the breast, head, and neck are marked with brown spots. There are also varieties marked white, green, blackish, and entirely black.

The Ortolan is not famed for its song, which is, however, soft and sweet. Like, the nightingale, with which it has also other points of resemblance, the Ortolan sings after as well as before sunset; and it was this bird that Varro called his companion by night and day.

Ortolans are solitary birds: they fly in pairs, rarely three together, and never in flocks. They are taken in traps, from March or April to September, when they are often poor and thin; but, if fed with plenty of millet-seed and other grain, they become sheer lumps of fat, and delicious morsels. They are fattened thus in large establishments in the south of Europe; and Mr. Gould states this to be effected in Italy and the south of France in a dark room.

The Ortolan is considered sufficiently fat when it is a handful; and is judged by feeling it, and not by appearance. They should not be killed with violence, like other birds; this might crush and bruise the delicate flesh, and spoil the coup d'ceil - to avoid which, the best mode is to plunge the head of the Ortolan into a glass of brandy.

Having picked the bird of its feathers, singe it with the flame of paper or spirit of wine; cat off the beak, and ends of the feet; do not draw it; put it into a paper case soaked in olive oil, and broil it over a slow fire. It will not require such afire as would do a steak; slack cinders, like those for a pigeon a la cravaudine, being sufficient; in a few minutes the Ortolan will swim in its own fat and will be cooked. Some gourmands wrap each bird in a vine-leaf. Ortolans are packed in tin boxes for exportation. They may be bought at Morel's, in Piccadilly, for half-a-crown apiece. Mr. Fisher, of Duke-street, St. James's, imports Ortolans in considerable numbers.

The south of Europe may be considered the summer and autumnal head quarters of the Ortolan, though it is a summer visitor in the central and northern parts. In Italy it is said to be common, by Temminck and others. The Prince of Musignano states it to be found in the Sabine mountains, but not commonly in the summer; and that it rarely occurs in the plains of Rome, but that it is frequent in Tuscany. Lapland, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, are among the countries visited by it. In the British isles it seems only entitled to rank as an autumnal visitor, but it may occur more frequently than is generally supposed; for, especially to an unpractised eye, it might be mistaken for the yellow-hammer, and, in some states of plumage, for other buntings. It has been taken in the neighbourhood of London; in 1837 there was a live specimen in the aviary of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park; and, during this year, many Ortolans were sent alive to the London market from Prussia. There is, however, some consolation for the rarity of the Ortolan in England. It is approached in delicacy by our wheat-ear, which in, for him, an unfortunate hour, was named the English Ortolan; from which period it has been pursued as a delicate morsel throughout all his island haunts.

Bewick's figure was captured at sea, off the coast of Yorkshire, in May, 1893. Every spring and autumn it may be observed at Gibraltar, on its migration. Mr. Strickland saw it at Smyrna in April. North Africa is its winter residence. Colonel Sykes notes it in his Catalogue of the Birds of Deccan.

A gourmand will take an Ortolan by the legs and crunch it in delicious mouthfuls, so as absolutely to lose none of it. More delicate feeders cut the bird in quarters, and lay aside the gizzard, which is somewhat hard; the rest may be eaten, even to the bones, which are sufficiently tender for the most delicate mouth to masticate without inconvenience.

Notwithstanding its delicacy, the Ortolan fattens very fast; and it is this lump of fatness that is its merit, and has sometimes caused it to be preferred to the beccafico. According to Buffon, the Ortolan was known to the Greeks and Romans, who understood fattening the bird upon millet; but a lively French commentator doubts this assertion. He maintains that, had the ancients known the Ortolan, they would have deified it, and built altars to it upon Mount Hymettus and the Janiculum; adding, did they not deify the horse of Caligula which was certainly not worth an Ortolan? and Caligula himself, who was not worth so much as his horse? However, the dispute belongs to the "Classics of the Table."

The Ortolan figures in a curious anecdote of individual epicurism in the last century. A gentleman of Gloucestershire had one son, whom he sent abroad to make the grand tour of the Continent, where he paid more attention to the cookery of nations and luxurious living than anything else. Before his return his father died, and left him a large fortune. He now looked over his note-book, to discover where the most exquisite dishes were to be had, and the best cooks obtained. Every servant in his house was a cook; his butler, footman, housekeeper, coachman, and grooms, were all cooks. He had three Italian cooks: one from Florence, another from Sienna, and a third from Viterbo - for dressing one Florentine dish! He had a messenger constantly on the road between Brittany and London, to bring the eggs of a certain sort of plover found in the former country. He was known to eat a single dinner at the expense of £50, though there were but two dishes. In nine years he found himself getting poor, and this made him melancholy.

When totally ruined, having spent £150,000, a friend one day gave him a guinea to keep him from starving; and he was found in a garret next day broiling an Ortolan, for which he had paid a portion of the alms.

470. Ortolans To Roast

They should be picked and singed but not drawn, put them on skewers with bacon round them, tie them on the spit, when they are done strew over with grated bread, or they may be split sideways, with a bay leaf between, and the dish should be garnished all round with fried bread crumbs.

471. English Ortolans

Are also roasted without drawing, pick and singe them carefully, and when they are roasted cover with bread crumbs. They may be stuffed with forcemeat, or not, at pleasure.