142 PET BIRDS OF BENGAL 



and is rarely seen to perch. It is very fond 

 of a dust-bath, but when it is raininor, it mav 

 be noticed wallowinoj in the ground. 



The Bush-Lark, as its name inipHes, 

 evinces a partiality for perching on bushes, 

 and is, to some extent, arboreal in its habits. 

 It mounts up to the topmost 

 The Bush- branch of a bush or a dead tree, 

 Aggin ^t^d from there, hurls itself up 



into space. It never gets up to 

 a height greater than thirty or forty feet, 

 nor does it romain there long. It drops 

 down again with upturned wiugs, legs 

 hanging down and singing with all its 

 might. It would invariably descend on 

 the perch it bad left, and as soon as it comes 

 down, its song is hushed. But not for long. 

 A stray insect or a small grain is picked 

 up and the flight again begins. Repeating 

 this process, it keeps to one bush for an 

 hour or longer, after which it moves on to 

 another. Getting up early in the morning, 

 sometimes even before the dawn, it makes, 

 all through the day, thousands of musical 

 sallies into the air without the least sisfn of 



