SHORE-LARK. SKY-LARK. 175 



shot at it clearly demonstrated, but it took to wing and 

 I could not see where it eventually went down." In a 

 a farther note in the " Field" for the following week, 

 Mr. Hele announces that this second bird was obtained 

 on the 16th, having been brought to him by a gentleman 

 who shot it on the beach at Thorpe. This also proved 

 to be a male. The latest occurrence of this species in 

 the Eastern Counties has been very obligingly com- 

 municated to me by Mr. Baker, of Cambridge, who says 

 that three specimens, two males and one female, sent to 

 him for preservation, were killed on the 10th or 12th of 

 February, 1865, out of a flock of about twenty, by Mr. 

 Fowler's keeper, at Gunton, near Lowestoft. The con- 

 tents of their crops, which he also forwarded, appeared 

 to consist of seeds of Polygonacece and the chrysalis of 

 some small insect. 



ALAUDA ARVENSIS, Linnaeus. 

 SKY-LAEK. 



"Up with the lark" is a very common expression 

 amongst early risers, yet in reality the members of the 

 early rising society, with its guaranteed stock of health, 

 wealth, and wisdom, are far less likely to hear the first 

 notes of the sky-lark, than those whom pleasure or 

 necessity have caused to be up all night. Late as these 

 birds are during the light summer evenings in retiring 

 to rest, their song may be heard again by two o'clock 

 the next morning, whilst the stars are still shining 

 brightly in the cold grey sky, and scarce a streak of 

 light yet indicates the approach of dawn. I have often, 

 at such times, when out on the broads, heard the sky- 

 lark's notes high over head, when far too dark to dis- 

 tinguish the bird; or from the neighbouring fields, not 



