136 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
The lark, during the summer months, is decidedly 
unsocial; for though we may meet with two or 
three pairs in the same field, we seldom find their 
nests near each other. They are not quarrelsome 
and pugnacious, like the redbreasts, but they seem 
to prefer a secluded spot to a crowded neighbour- 
hood. The young larks, after leaving their nest, 
seem equally unsocial, and do not, like most nest- 
lings, keep together in a band, but prefer to wander 
about the field by themselves, though this must in- 
crease the trouble of their parents in bringing them 
food. Yet these seemingly unsocial birds, as soon 
as the breeding season is fully over, flock together 
in numbers almost incredible, and have then been 
caught for the table in most countries of Europe 
from the earliest times, as in Greece, Italy, and 
England. The numbers taken in France may be 
guessed at from the account of Montbeillard, who 
says, “‘a hundred dozen or more are sometimes 
taken at once, and it is reckoned very bad sport 
when only twenty-five dozen are got.” 
What we have said of larks will nearly apply to 
linnets, chaffinches, the two house-swallows, and 
several other species, which breed in solitary pairs, 
and congregate at the approach of winter. It is 
worthy of remark, that most, if not all, of these 
broods are more or less migratory, either leaving 
the country altogether, or shifting from one district 
to another; and, looking at the facts in this point 
of view, we may plausibly conjecture that the 
young broods take advantage of the experience of 
the older birds in removing to a more genial cli- 
mate, or to places more abounding in food. 
