THE SKYLARK. 179 



kind of rattle.* During autumn and winter, Larks 

 congregate in large flocks, and occupy their time princi- 

 pally in searching for food on the ground. If disturbed, 

 they rise in a scattered manner, wheel about in the air 

 until the flock is formed again, chirping from time to 

 time, and then withdraw, not in a compact body, but at 

 unequal distances from the earth and from each other, 

 to a new feeding-ground, over which they hover with 

 circling flight for some time before alighting. On trees 

 they never perch ; though one or two may occasionally 

 be seen settled on a quickset hedge or a railing. In 

 North Britain, at the approach of severe weather, they 

 flock together and migrate southwards. Great numbers 

 also visit England from the Continent, arriving in Novem- 

 ber, when they are caught in nets and traps for the table. 

 Early in spring the flocks break up, when the birds 

 pair, and for three or four months, every day and all 

 day long, when the weather is fine (for the Lark dislikes 

 rain and high winds), its song may be heard throughout 

 the breadth of the land. Eising as it were by a sudden 

 impulse from its nest or lowly retreat, it bursts forth, while 

 as yet but a few feet from the ground, into exuberant song, 

 and with its head turned towards the breeze, now ascend- 

 ing perpendicularly, and now veering to the right or left, 

 but not describing circles, it pours forth an unbroken 

 chain of melody, until it has reached an elevation com- 

 puted to be, at the most, about a thousand feet. To an 

 observer on earth, it has dwindled to the size of a mere 



* Farmers would effect a great saving if they sowed their wheat 

 deeper than is the usual practice. The only part of the young 

 plant which the Lark touches is the white stalk between the grain 

 and the blade. In its effort to obtain this it frequently destroys 

 the whole plant, if the grain has been lodged near the surface ; but 

 if the young shoot have sprouted from a depth of an inch or more, 

 the bird contents itself with as much as it can reach* without 

 digging, and leaves the grain uninjured and capable of sprouting 

 again. 



N 2 



