AN ASPIRING FLIER. 173 



than to see the feathers of the Skylark, mostly nestling 

 feathers, in stubble fields and pastures, and sometimes they 

 are carried off to a neighbouring wood to be devoured at 

 leisure. Poor Larks ! pity it is that human epicures should 

 have tastes so similar to those of the vermin aforesaid, 

 and that the sweet songster should be shot and snared by 

 thousands. 



Knox, in his c Ornithological Eambles in Sussex,' de- 

 scribes the methods employed in netting and killing Larks 

 near Brighton, when they pass from east to west in their 

 autumnal migrations. They are either shot down while 

 attracted by pieces of looking glass fixed in a revolving 

 frame of wood which glitters in the sun, or taken in nets 

 drawn over their sleeping places in the night. Broderip 

 observes, that no bird is so easily netted as the Lark. He 

 generally starts from the ground just before the lower edge 

 of the net touches him, and invariably mounts perpen- 

 dicularly. Their characteristic propensity to ascend at 

 once may be observed by any person who l treads up ' a 

 Lark in a field, and satisfactorily illustrated by releasing 

 at the same moment a newly captured Lark and a Sparrow 

 from a cage or hat within the precincts of a room. While 

 the Sparrow will fly off horizontally, dash himself against 

 the window, and be almost stunned from the shock, the 

 Lark will generally mount upwards to the ceiling, and 

 flutter there for a time, in vain efforts to reach the sky, 

 before he attempts any other mode of exit ; but this habit 

 is fatal to him in the netting season. He might frequently 

 escape, as indeed the Bunting, the Sparrow, and the Linnet 

 constantly do, by flying straightforward ; but ascending 

 as he does directly from the ground, the moment his wings 

 have touched the upper part of the net, it is suffered to 

 drop suddenly, and his capture is thus inevitable. Bech- 

 stein, the great German authority on cage birds, recom- 

 mends that the top of the Lark's cage should be of linen, 

 since from its tendency to rise for flight, it would run the 

 risk of wounding its head against a lining of wood or iron 

 wire, especially before it is well tamed. Poor Lark ! 

 again we say, pity that it should ever be confined. Let 

 Wordsworth plead for him in his captivity : 



