502 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
the ‘lits in its softer and more bulky plumage and tail. Its flight is 
undulating and rapid ; its long tail and body muffled up to the chin 
in dense plumage, giving the observer the idea of an arrow flying 
through the air. 
The Tits abound throughout Europe, and are also found in 
America; some of them remaining all the year with us, although 
they are all birds of passage. 
The Larks (A/audine) complete the Conirostral Passerine. They 
are distinguished by the great muscularity of the gizzard, and their 
elongated and slightly-curved claws, which are sometimes longer 
than the toe itself, strong indications of ground habits; in short, 
they pass their lives on the surface of great grassy plains, or soaring 
in the air. ‘This family renders eminent service to agriculturists by 
the enormous quantity of worms, caterpillars, and grasshoppers it 
devours. 
The Lark builds its nest in a furrow, or between two clods of 
earth, without skill, but with sufficient intelligence to know that 
it is necessary it should be concealed. It lays four or five eggs, 
spotted or freckled ; in favourable seasons three sets of eggs in the 
year are sometimes hatched. The young birds break the shell after 
fifteen days’ incubation, and are in a condition to leave their cradle 
at the end of fifteen more ; but the mother still continues her surveil- 
lance, guides their steps, satisfies their wants, and continually hovers 
near them until the demands of another brood take her away, when 
they are abandoned to themselves, being now so fully fledged as no 
longer to require maternal care. 
The Lark is the living emblem of happy, peaceful labour, the 
songster of the cultivated earth. In the early dawn the male bird 
rises aloft, and with soaring wings fills the air with his joyous notes, 
and calls'the husbandman to his labour. Higher and higher he 
mounts, until he is lost to sight; but his voice is still heard. The 
song is significant ; it is the hymn of good fellowship—a call to all 
the dwellers of the plain. 
The season of incubation over, Larks assemble in numerous 
flocks, having now only their food to think of; and that being plenti- 
ful, they soon get plump and fat. In countries like France this is 
the signal for their destruction, for persons assemble from all quarters 
to make a raid on these valuable innocents, using every means to 
accomplish their work of death; and unless the legislature interferes 
in their behalf by passing laws for their preservation, it will finish 
probably by exterminating the race. 
Taking Larks by means of a mirror is a ruse based upon the 
