Sec. 11.] BIRDS. 195 



iiitrotluce skylarks into tliis country. In February, 1S53, John Gorgas, of 

 "Wilniinyton, Del., received a lot of twenty, wliicli were kept confined until 

 the llitii of March, wiien they were set at liberty. Another lot of twenty- 

 two arris'ed April 18th, and were set at libert}' the next day. Tliis was 

 only twenty-two days from the time they were trapped in England. These 

 birds propagated in the neighborhood that season, and strong hopes were 

 entertained that the English skylark had been introduced permanently 

 info this country ; l)ut these hopes have not been realized. A letter 

 from Mr. Gorgas, in the summer of 1860, indicates that the birds have all 

 disappeared. 



There was also another lot of skylarks imported, and liberated in Green- 

 wood Cemetery, on Long Island, in the spring of 1853, and still another lot 

 were set free in Washington city, at a later period ; but, so far as we can 

 learn, all of these birds have di^ap]>cared. This is greatly to be regretted ; 

 for besides the interest of their curious flight and song, they are great insect 

 destroyers. Their home is in the grass and grain fields, and their food in 

 summer is entirely composed of insects and worms that arc pests to the 

 farmer. In Europe they inhabit a wide range of latitude, feeding in winter 

 upon seeds of grass and weeds, and, if located too far north, making a short 

 migration to a milder clime. It can not lie owing to the cold that they do 

 not succeed here ; but it is not improbable tliat the cold has prompted them 

 to move southward, and they have not felt disposed to retnrn. "We still hoi)C 

 the skylark will have its homo with ns, as common as in England, where it 

 is so noted as a song-bird. Its flight skyward is also very curious. It as- 

 cends perpendicularly, as though it screwed itself through the air, nntil 

 quite out of sight, and after a little descends in the same way. The skylark 

 in Europe is a fine table luxury, notwithstanding they afford but half an 

 ounce each of meat to the epicure. Vast numbers of just as diminutive 

 birds are sacrificed upon the epicurean tables of all our large cities in the 

 United States. 



To those who may take an interest in the importation of birds, the follow- 

 ing account will be useful, as given by Mr. AV. Brodie, of his successful 

 transjiortation of English pheasants, gold pheasants, and partridges from 

 England to New Zealand. lie says : 



''I left the St. Katherine's Dock with thirty-six pheasants and partridges 

 on board, and after a long and most disagreeable voyage of 2G1 days, landed 

 in Auckland, New Zealand, with the same number as I had left England 

 with. It is a pastime to cabin passengers going a long voyage to Jiave some 

 occupation to break the monotony of 8liij)board imprisonment. I therefore 

 looked after my own birds, cleaned them out every morning, gave them 

 fresh red gravel (coarse) every other day, supplied them bountifully with 

 fresh water (not water caught on deck after a heavy rain, ns there is a cer- 

 tain quantity of tar in it), never allowed thetn a fresh-water bath, fed them 

 with buckwheat, wheat, canary-seed, and hemp-seed alternately, week and 

 week about, kept them in wicker cages made on purpose, three feet long, 



