LARK 507 
outgrowth of a fleshy lobe or lobes. With the exception of North 
America, they are found in most parts of the world, but perhaps the 
greater number in Africa. Three species occur in Europe—Hoplo- 
pterus spinosus, the Spur-winged Plover, and Chettusia gregaria and 
C. leucura; but the first and last are only stragglers from Africa 
or Asia. 
LARK, Anglo-Saxon Ldwerce, German Lerche, Danish Lerke, 
Dutch Leeuwerik, a name (perhaps always, but now certainly) used 
in a rather general sense, any special meaning being signified by a 
prefix, as SKYLARK, TITLARK, WOODLARK, and so forth; though 
custom ordains that the first of these, the Alauda arvensis of 
ornithology, is intended if no qualification be expressed, since it is 
the best known and most widely-spread species throughout Europe. 
It scarcely needs description. Of all birds it holds unquestionably 
the foremost place in our literature, and there is hardly a poet or 
poetaster who has not made it his theme, to say nothing of the 
many writers of prose who have celebrated its qualities in passages 
that will be remembered so long as our language lasts. It is also 
one of the most favourite cage-birds, as it will live for many years 
in captivity, and, except in the season of moult, will pour forth its 
thrilling song many times in an hour for weeks and months 
together, while its affection for its owner is generally of the most 
marked kind. Difficult as it is to estimate the comparative 
abundance of different species of birds, there would probably be no 
error in accounting the Skylark the most plentiful of the Class in 
Western Europe. Not only does it frequent almost all unwooded 
districts in this quarter of the globe, making known its presence 
throughout spring and summer, everywhere that it occurs, by its 
gladsome and heart-lifting notes, but, unlike most birds, its 
numbers increase with the spread of agricultural improvement, and 
since the beginning of the century the extended breadth of arable 
land in Great Britain must have multiplied manifold the Lark- 
population of the country. Nesting chiefly in the growing corn, 
its eggs and young are protected in a great measure from all 
molestation ; and, as each pair of birds will rear several broods in 
the season, their produce on the average may be set down as at 
least quadrupling the original stock—the eggs in each nest varying 
from three to five. The majority of young Larks seem to leave 
their birthplace as soon as they can shift for themselves, but what 
immediately becomes of them is one of the many mysteries of 
bird-life that has not been penetrated. When the stubbles are 
cleared, old and young congregate in flocks; but the young then 
seen appear to be those only of the later broods. In the course of 
the autumn they give place to others coming from more northerly 
districts, and then, as winter succeeds, in great part vanish, leaving 
