LARKS. 195 



those fine days whiich succeed the cold and gloom of winter, and its notes are 

 the first to welcome the ploughman to his task. During the noontide of day 

 it is silent, but when the sun declines towards the west the lark fills the air 

 with his varied and tuneful warblings. " Rising, as it were, by a sudden im- 

 pulse from its nest or lowly retreat, it bursts forth, while but yet a few feet from 



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Fig. 103.— The Woodi ark (^AiauJa atborea). 



the ground, into exuberant song ; and with its head turned to the breeze, now 

 ascendmg perpendicularly, now veering to the right or left, but not describmg 

 circles, it pours forth an unbroken stream of melody, until it has reached an 

 elevation computed to be about a thousand feet : to an observer on the earth it 

 has dwindled to a mere speck. It then begins to descend, not with an uniform 

 downward motion, but by a series of droppings, with intervals of simple hover- 

 ing, during which it seems to be resting on its wings. Finally, as it draws near 

 the earth, it ceases its song and descends more rapidly; but before it touches 

 the ground, it recovers itself sweeps away with an almost horizontal flight for a 

 short distance, and disappears in the herbage."— Rev. C. A. Johns. 



A remarkable group called BuUnnch Larks {PyrrJiulauda) is met with in 

 Africa and India, where they are generally seen congregated in large or small 

 flocks. When feeding, the numerous members of these flocks are widely scat- 

 tered, but the moment one individual takes to flight from alarm, all the others 

 follow the example, and they move off in a body to another locahty. It is not, 

 however, their custom to fly far, and the instant they reach the ground they 

 again disperse in all directions, and run to and fro with great rapidity. At times 

 they rise into the air, and after soaring for a time descend like larks, and like 

 them also they build their nest upon the ground under the shelter of a tuft of 

 grass or of some dwarf shrub. They feed principally on the seeds of grasses. 

 The Indian species has a strange habit of squatting on the high roads, and 

 almost allowing itself to be ridden over before it will rise. 



The members of another division {JSIegaloplionus) are peculiar to South 



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