166 SKY 1. \ R K .
manner as he comes down towards the 'finale.' In the winter season,
when an upward snaring is scarcely attempted, the flight is slightly
undulated, performed by a few flappings of the wings and then a
further progress, either in the way of a short hovering about or a
wheeling here and there, before the ground is again settled on, which
it is rather abruptly at the close, and especially so if alarmed, when
the bird falls suddenly with closed wings, and often all but straight
down.
Their food consists of grain, grasses, and seeds, and also of insects,
caterpillars, snails, and worms; and they may often be seen wading
into little pools of water, probably in search of any insects that may
happen to be there. In quest of these they have also been seen
running along the top of' a hedge. The Lark uses a quantity of sand
and gravel with its food.
The note of the Sky hark, so rich and clear, full and varied, is
universally appreciated, so that one may surely say 'where is the man
with soul so dead,' who, when on some clear bright day in early
spring, when all nature is full of hope, and in the blue sky above
scarce a cloud is to be seen, he for the first time that year hears
the wi II-known enrol, can help turning his eyes upwards to detect
the utterer of it, and follow the happy bird, to trace, till he can no
longer follow it, save faintly with his ear, in its aerial ascent, step
by s t e p , as it were, in the ' open firmament of Heaven,' this one of the
'fowls that may fly' there, by the permission given to them from the
(heat Creator when they were first called into existence.'1 I think
it is old Izaak Walton who says *0 (Jon! what happiness must
Thou have prepared for Thy saints in Heaven, when Thou hast provided
bad men with such enjoyments on earth!' In descending,
t o o , the same clear note is still heard, is sometimes continued again
after the bird has alighted on the ground, and occasionally uttered
by it when perched on a bush, and sometimes when hovering over
a field at but a little height. I have more than once heard one
myself warbling sweetly for some time from the top of a hedge, in
the month of June. It has been heard long after sunset, even when
the night hail become quite dark, towards the 'witching hour' of
midnight. If you have a Lark in a cage, give him his liberty, and
make him happy.
And not only is the song of the Skv hark thus beautiful, but it
is abundantly bestowed upon us. It is to be heard throughout
three quarters of the year, nay, one may almost say, in some degree,
throughout the year, for in the beginning of January in the present
year. I think I heard, as others have before, an attempt at it. Mr.
SKY l.ARK. US:
Macgillivray has heard the full song in Fifeshire, an appropriate
locality, on the 13th. of February, and again on the 12th. of March,
1835. It is also uttered on the ground, from the top of a clod, or
even in the concealment of the grass, as well as in the air, though
not so much so in the former case. It is commenced as early as
half-past one and two o'clock in the morning, and is continued at
intervals till after the sun has again gone down. The female sings
as well as the male. In the winter a faint chirrup is the ordinary
uote.
"When 'April showers' begin to give promise of returning spring,
or even earlier, in the beginning of March, as I have myself seen
them, and in February, the Larks begin to separate from their companions
of the winter months, with whom since the autumn they have
associated in large straggling flocks, and form their 'reunions,' of a
very different nature to those of the fashionable world. In the one
there is that, of which in the other there is none; and this, as Aristotle
says, makes 'not a little but the whole difference.' Two broods
are frequently reared in the year, the first of which is fledged by
the middle or end of June, or even the middle of May, the eggs
being laid the end of April or beginning of May, and the second in
August, the eggs being laid in June or July. In confinement, three
and even four sets of eggs have been known to be laid. Mr. Jesse
says that if some of the eggs be removed, and only one or two left,
the bird will continue to lay for a long time, but that if three are
left she will sit.
The nest is placed in a hollow scraped in the ground, with or
without the fortuitous shelter of a clod of earth or tuft of herbage.
It is placed in various situations, among others in a rut or track,
and is rather carelessly made of grasses, and perhaps a few chance
leaves, the coarser outside, the finer on the inner part. The male
bird appears to bring the materials to the spot, where the female is
engaged in arranging them. The young are hatched in about a fortnight
: they do not quit the nest until fully fledged, but return to
it to roost at night for some time after they have left it.
The eggs, three, four, or five in number, vary much both in form
and colour; some are of a greyish white colour, with a tinge of
purple or green, and freckled and mottled nearly all over with a
darker shade of grey, greyish brown, or brown; others are of a deep
sombre colour, and in some the chief part of the colour is concentrated
at the larger end, cither wholly, or only partially around it. They
are usually placed in the nest with their smaller ends towards the centre.
Male; length, seven ruches and a quarter to seven and a half; bill,