130 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



fully in the meadows, with the distant chimes of village 

 bells, and the blue sky and white drifting clouds, that 

 are such a beautiful feature of an English landscape. 

 Autumn is the season that the melodious Sky Lark figures 

 most frequently on the menu. Vast flocks of these little 

 birds have for the past months been pouring into this 

 country in an endless stream, flying by night as well as 

 by day across the German Ocean, only to fall victims to 

 the prowling gunner and the cunning net-man, who sell 

 them by the hundred to the game-dealer. Most of them 

 are caught in clap nets, and many in draw nets which 

 are dragged across the fields where the poor birds sleep, 

 tired out after their long journey. As we look at the 

 festoons and bunches of Larks in all the game-dealers' 

 shops, we cannot help feeling regret at the sacrifice 

 of so much musical life. Passing sad it is to think 

 that so much that is beautiful and musical in the bird 

 world should come to such an untimely end, to feed the 

 pampered tastes of nineteenth century civilisation ! 



Fat Quails come next upon the pretty menu card. 

 They are comparatively rare birds in this country, so 

 much so that it is not worth the while of any one to 

 seek their capture ; but in autumn and spring they 

 migrate across the Mediterranean in vast abundance, on 

 their way to and from Africa, where they live in winter. 

 The coming of the Quail is eagerly watched for by the 

 peasants of the South, and the great harvest is caught 



