164 THE BIRDS OF JSOliTHAMPTOXsmEE 



be still occasionally met with on our arable lands, I 

 think that I may safely say that on our freshly cut 

 stubbles in September not a tenth part of the Sky- 

 Larks which used to frequent them twenty years ago 

 are now to be met with. There is no doubt that this 

 species and many others suffered severely some years 

 ago from the abominable practice of scattering poison 

 amongst the newly sown wheat, but not to a sufficient 

 extent to account, at all events in our district, for 

 the steady and permanent annual decrease above 

 mentioned. It is true that enormous numbers of 

 Sky-Larks are netted every year in this country and 

 on the continent, but this has been the case for many 

 more years than we can recollect ; no natural causes, 

 so far as I am aware, have conduced to this dimi- 

 nution, and the Sky-Lark is certainly not a species 

 which is injuriously affected by the improvements in 

 agriculture, draining, enclosures, and the like, so that 

 I confess myself at a loss to assign any probable cause 

 for this very certain fact. I am not by any means 

 forgetful of the damage done to all ground-breeding 

 birds by mowing-machines and similar implements, 

 but as the majority of our Sky-Larks certainly nest on 

 the arable land, and their young can generally take 

 care of themselves by the time of corn-harvest, they 

 are not so much affected by these inventions as are 

 our game-birds, which are more addicted to nesting 

 in grass-fields and meadows, and are cut to pieces and 

 mangled by dozens, from the want of a little care in 

 the management of these, to the sportsman, infernal 

 machines. 



The Sky -Lark may be correctly termed migratory 

 in our Islands, for although great numbers nest in 

 most parts of Great Britain and Ireland, a very large 



