but prefers cultivated districts, particularly uninclosed arable
land. Here in early spring its cheerful and exhilarating song,
fresh as the season, is the admiration of all. The bird rises
on quivering wing, almost perpendicularly, singing as he flies,
and gaining an elevation that is quite extraordinary, yet so
powerful is his voice, that his wild, joyous notes, may be
heard distinctly when the pained eye can trace his course no
longer. An ear well tuned to his song can even then
determine by the notes whether the bird is still ascending,
remaining stationary, or on the descent. When at a considerable
height, should a Hawk appear in sight, or the well-
known voice of his mate reach his ear, the wings are closed,
and he drops to the earth with the rapidity of a stone.
Occasionally the Sky Lark sings when on the ground; but
his most lively strains are poured forth during flight; and
even in confinement, this would-be tenant of the free air
tramples his turf and flutters his wings while singing, as if
muscular motion was with him a necessary accompaniment to
his music.
The male Sky Lark is one of our most common cage-birds,
from the facility with which he is preserved in health under
confinement, and the general sprightliness of his song; yet
the notes of the Lark are more remarkable for variety and
power than for quality of tone ; what is wanted in quality
is, however, made up by quantity; his strains are heard
during eight months of the year; and in summer, Mr.
Jenyns observes, he begins to sing soon after two o’clock in
the morning, and continues with little intermission till after
sunset.
The food of the Sky Lark is grain, seeds of grasses, various
insects, and worms. They pair in April, and generally
produce two broods in the summer. The nest is placed
on the ground, frequently sheltered by a tuft of herbage, or
a clod of earth. Grahame, in his poem on the Birds of
Scotland, has well contrasted the lowly situation of the nest
with the lofty flight of the builder:
“ Thou, simple bird, dwellest in a home
The humblest ; yet thy morning song ascends
Nearest to Heaven.”
The materials of which the nest is formed, as well as the
locality frequently selected for it, are in the same poem
thus truly described:
“ The daisied Lea he loves, where tufts of grass
Luxuriant crown the ridge ; there, with his mate,
He founds their lowly house, of withered bents,
And coarsest spear-grass ; next, the inner work
With finer, and still finer fibres lays,
Rounding it curious with his speckled breast.”
The eggs are four or five in number, of a greyish white
ground tinged with green, and mottled nearly all over with
darker grey and ash brown ; the length eleven lines, by eight
lines and a half in breadth : the young are hatched in about
fifteen days. Mr. Selby says, that the young of the first
brood are fledged by the end of June, and the second brood
are able to fly in August. The strong attachment of the
parent Lark to its eggs and young has long been known, and
a remarkable instance is thus described by Mr. Blyth in the
second volume of The Naturalist, ft The other day some
mowers actually shaved off the upper part of the nest of a
Sky Lark without injuring the female, which was sitting on
her young; still she did not fly away, and the mowers levelled
the grass all round her without her taking further
notice of their proceedings. A young friend of mine, son of
the owner of the crop, witnessed this ; and about an hour
afterwards went to see if she was safe, when, to his great
surprise, he found that she had actually constructed a dome
of dry grass over the nest during the interval, leaving an