SLAUGHTER OF LARKS 143 



those birds which are most suitable for rearing 

 the young cuckoo. The egg of the cuckoo is 

 about the size of that of the pipit ; it is for 

 this reason, perhaps, that the nest of the latter 

 is so frequently selected. The ground colour of 

 the eggs of the two birds is, moreover, somewhat 

 similar. 



The wholesale slaughter of larks which takes 

 place annually is a disgrace. Still more so is it 

 that there should be so great a demand for these 

 birds for table purposes. So long as there exist 

 people whose consciences are so dulled as to 

 admit of their eating them, so long they will 

 continue to be slaughtered. Englishmen hold 

 the name of Vitellius in detestation quite as 

 much because he feasted on the tongues of night- 

 ingales as for any other of his numerous vices. 

 Yet it seems to me to be quite as disgusting to 

 eat a skylark as a nightingale. Tens of 

 thousands of these birds are exposed for sale 

 in the markets during the winter as food! I 

 often wonder, if those people who purchase them 

 were to be told that these are the birds which 

 carol high in the air over the April corn, whether 

 they could find it in their hearts to condemn 

 such joyous little minstrels to death. I cannot 

 but suppose that when they purchase them they 

 are under the impression that they are a different 

 kind of bird to the skylark, of which poets have 

 sung, and of the beauty of whose melody they 

 themselves can talk so glibly and rapturously. 



