152 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
in allotment gardens or in turnip or rape fields, and 
the mischief they then do is certainly serious: 
I have a note of such a visitation, dated the 30th of 
January, 1865: it is as follows :—“ Since the late 
frost set in very unusual numbers of Sky Larks 
made their appearance, both in flocks and singly: 
they have nearly destroyed a field of rape for me, 
there being nothing of the leaves left but the thick 
stems; the whole field looks like a field of turnips 
that had been attacked by the “ black army,” nothing 
but the skeletons of the leaves being left. I had one 
shot at this flock, and killed enough for a good dish 
of Larks, but they were very thin and not good 
eating; their crops and throats were full of the 
green rape. Had I been so disposed I might have 
killed almost any number, for they were so thick on 
the ground that the one shot I had killed thirteen, 
and the whole flock almost immediately settled 
down again in the same field. I also noticed some 
of the same sort of mischief done to some cabbages 
in an allotment field near.” 
In the severe weather, in other winters, I have 
seen these birds do some mischief, but nothing to 
compare with that above mentioned. In spite, how- 
ever, of these occasional inroads, I think that, in 
consideration of the destruction of various insects 
and of the seeds of many sorts of weeds, we may 
fairly decide the question of useful or mischievous 
in favour of the Sky Lark. 
