Class II. SKYLARK. S55 



It continues its harmony fevcral months, begin- 

 ning early in the fpring, on pairing. In the win- 

 ter they aflemble in vafl: flocks, grow very fat, 

 and are taken in gre;ic numbers for our tables. 

 They build their nefl: on the ground, beneath fome 

 clod ', forming it of hay, dry fibres, &c. and lay 

 four or five eggs. 



The place thefe birds are taken in the greateft 

 quantity, is the neighbourhood of Dunjiahle : the 

 feafon begins about the fourteenth o^ September^ and 

 ends the twenty-fifth of February, and during 

 that fpace, about 4000 dozen are caught, which 

 fupply the markets of the metropolis. Thofe caught 

 in the day are taken in clap-nets of fiveteen yards 

 length, and two and a half in breadth ; and are 

 enticed within their reach by means of bitsof look- 

 ing-glafs, fixed in a piece of wood, and placed in 

 the middle of the nets, which are put in a quick 

 whirling motion, by a firing the larker com- 

 mands; he alfo makes ufe of a decoy lark. Thefc 

 nets are ufed only till the fourteenth of November^ 

 for the larks will not dare, or frolick in the air 

 except in fine funny weather ; and of courfe can- 

 not be invicgled into the fnare. When the wea- 

 ther erows gloomy, the larker changes his engine, 

 and makes ufe of a trammel net twenty-feven or 

 twenty-eight feet long, and five broad ; which is 

 put on two poles eighteen feet long, and carried 

 by men under each arm, who pafs over the fields 

 and quarter the ground as a fetting dog; when 



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they 



