Larks. 113 



carefully cleansed, they will become lame or lose their 

 claws. 



Larks are subject to all the ailments to which tame 

 birds are liable, and especially to diarrhoea, for which 

 they should have some saffron put into the water-glass, 

 and a little grated Cheshire cheese, old and dry, mixed 

 with their food ; or a little ground rice may be given 

 them, and now and then a small spider. The Skylark 

 has one malady peculiar to it : the skin at the root of 

 the beak becomes yellow and scabby, and for this it 

 should have cooling food watercress or lettuce, and 

 ants' eggs and mealworms. 



In garden aviaries, where they can have plenty of 

 air and exercise, Larks have beeri known to breed 

 occasionally. The hen will frequently lay eggs in 

 confinement, but will very seldom sit on them. She 

 is, in her natural condition, a very affectionate mother, 

 and many instances are recorded of her carrying her 

 young out of a field invaded by mowers, sometimes in 

 her beak and sometimes on her back. An anecdote 

 is told by Mr. Blyth of a hen Skylark, who would not 

 leave her nest even when the mowers levelled the grass 

 all around her, and they actually shaved off the upper 

 part of the nest without injuring her. A young man 

 who witnessed this, went an hour after to see if she 

 was safe, and found that she had constructed a dome 

 of dry grass over the nest, with an aperture on one 

 side for ingress and egress, during the interval. Both 



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