remarkable for variety and power than for quality of to n e ;
what is wanted in quality is, however, made up by quantity;
the strains are heard during at least eight months of the
year, while in summer the cock begins to sing about
two hours before sunrise, and continues at intervals till
after sunset*. The actual duration of each song is, however,
much shorter, even in calm weather which is most favourable
to it, than most people think. The careful observations of
Hepburn and Weir given by Macgillivray (Brit. Birds, ii.
pp. 472, 480) shew that at the beginning of the season it
seldom exceeds two minutes, while in the full flush of spring
a quarter of an hour is its utmost limit—facts of which any
one taking the trouble to time the bird may assure himself.
The food of the Skylark is various seeds, including corn,
sometimes a few berries, with many insects and worms. It
pairs early in the year, the exact time being much influenced
by the state of the weather, and generally, at least in our
southern counties, produces several broods in the course of
the season. The nest is placed on the ground, usually in a
hollow formed by the bird itself, and often two or more such
hollows are made before one is found to its liking: the shelter
of a tuft of grass or a clod of earth is also frequently sought.
Grahame, in his ‘ Birds of Scotland,’ has well contrasted
the lowly situation of the nest with the lofty flight of the
builder :
— “ Thou, simple bird,
Of all the vocal quire, dwellest in a home
The humblest; yet thy morning song ascends
Nearest to heaven.”
The nest is, in the same poem, thus truly described :
they not keep one to elieer the long hours of toil or p a in ! Few birds are so
readily domesticated. The store their owners set on such captives ensures their
good treatment, and it is notorious that a mutual affection nearly always exists
between the two. If it be a crime to deprive any animal of its liberty under
any circumstances, the position advanced by the writers referred to is of course
unimpeachable, but if otherwise there seems to be no valid reason for exempting
the Skylark from that taming process which even an Apostle does not blame.
* In places near Thetford where the Ringed Plover is common Skylarks often
imitate the note of that bird, making it part of their own song.
“ 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 speargrass; next, the inner work
With finer, and still finer fibres lays,
Rounding it curious with his speckled breast.”
The eggs, from three to five in number, are subject to a
good deal of variety: the ground-colour is french-wliite, but
generally so obscured by a freckling or numerous small
blotches of olive-brown or hair-brown that little else is
visible; sometimes patches of pale lavender are also present
and occasionally the ground-colour is greyish-wliite, in which
case the mottling is usually of a dull reddish-brown and the
whole egg has a warmer appearance, but still more abnormally-
coloured eggs are not unfrequent. They measure from '99
to -87 by from -78 to -62 in. The young are hatched in
about fifteen days, and those of the first brood are fledged by
about the middle of May. The attachment of the parents
to their offspring is very strong and many instances are
known of their removing the eggs or helpless young under
the fear of impending danger, or when any one has meddled
with the nest, though the act of transfer has been but seldom
witnessed. Jesse indeed was informed by a friend that he
had observed it on one occasion, but then it was not successful,
for the old bird in its flight dropped the young one
it was carrying in its claws, which was thus killed by the fall
from a height of about thirty feet. Not always however is
resort had to this expedient. Blyth (Nat. 1837, p. 102) describes
a case of which he was told wherein the upper part
of a Skylark’s nest having been shaved off by the scythe,
and the surrounding grass levelled by the mowers, without
the female, who was sitting on her young, flying away, she
was found about an hour afterwards to have constructed a
dome of dry grass over the nest during the interval; thus
securing, as in the case of the Meadow-Pipit already mentioned
(pages 577, 578), a continuance of shelter.
Skylarks constantly, and with evident delight, dust themselves,
especially in sunny weather, scratching a slight hollow
in the ground, shuffling and rubbing their bodies against its
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