5oS 



LARK 



not a tithe of the numbers previously present. On the approach 

 of severe weather, in one part of the country or another, flocks 

 arrive, undoubtedly from the Continent, which in magnitude cast 

 into insignificance all those that have hitherto inhabited the 

 district. On the east coast of both Scotland and England this 

 immigration has been several times noticed as occiu'ring in a 

 constant stream for as many as three days in succession. Further 

 inland the birds are observed "in numbei\s simply incalculable," 

 and "in countless hundreds." On such occasions the bird-catchers 

 are busily at work with their nets or snares, so that 20,000 or 

 30,000 Larks are often sent together to the London market, and at 

 the lowest estimate £2000 worth are annually sold there. During 

 the winter of 1867-68, 1,255,500 Larks, valued at £2260, were 

 taken into the town of Dieppe.^ The same thing happens in 

 various places almost every year, and many persons are apt to 

 believe that thereby the species is threatened with extinction. 

 When, hoM^ever, it is considered that, if these birds were left to 

 continue their wanderings, a large proportion would die of hunger 

 before reaching a place that would supply them with food, and 

 that of the remainder an enormous proportion would perish at sea 

 in their vain attempt to find a settlement, it must be acknowledged 

 that man by his wholesale massacres, which at first seem so brutal, 

 is but anticipating the act of Nature, and on the whole probably 

 the fate of the Larks at his hands is not worse than that which 

 they Avould encounter did not his devices intervene. 



The Skylark's range extends across the Old World from the 

 Faeroes to the Km^ile Islands. In winter it occurs in North China, 

 Nepal, the Punjab, Persia, Palestine, Lower Egypt, and Barbary. 



^^^^^ 



Skylarks — Alauda agrestis and A. arvensis. (From Dresser.) 



It sometimes strays to Madeira, and has been killed in Bermuda, 

 though its unassisted appearance there is doubtful. It has been 



^ See Yarrell {Ilisf. Br. Birds, ed. 4, i. pp. 618-621), where particular refer- 

 ences to the above statements, and some others, are given. 



