255 

 SKYLARK. 



Alauda arvensis 



Resident. Generally and abundantly distributed. Immense 

 numbers of immigrants arrive from the Continent in autumn. 



Historically, the Skylark, as a Yorkshire bird, can claim 

 ancestry of great antiquity, for we find in the ordinances 

 as to the price of food in the City of York, in 1393, in the 

 sixteenth year of the reign of King Richard II., that " the 

 price for 12 larks be one penny " ; in the Northumberland 

 Household Book, kept at the Castles of Wressill and Lekinfield, 

 in 1512, the value of " Larkys " was stated to be " 12 for 2d." ; 

 and in 1560, at Hull, Larkes were quoted at 4d. per dozen. 



Thomas Allis, in 1844, wrote : 



Alauda arvensis. Sky Lark Very common. A bird of this 

 species, in confinement at Halifax, has the mandibles greatly produced 

 and crossed, as is sometimes met with in different species of birds 

 in a state of nature ; it takes its usual food with ease. 



In addition to being a widely diffused and abundant 

 resident species, enormous bodies of immigrant Skylarks 

 arrive on the east coast in the autumn, individually far out- 

 numbering any other migrant. After the breeding season 

 the bulk of our home bred birds move towards the coast 

 in readiness to leave, and by the end of August their departure 

 has commenced. Throughout the two months following, 

 this migration is at its height, and is usually carried on 

 from daybreak to noon, when the succession of straggling 

 flocks may be observed moving along the coast line in a 

 southerly direction. This movement would be much more 

 noticeable were it not for the tremendous swarms of new 

 comers that pour in from the Continent, commencing about 

 the end of August and continuing for several months, and 

 even into the following year, during all hours of the day 

 and night and in all weathers. When the atmosphere is 

 foggy, or during heavy storms of rain and snow, Skylarks 

 are frequently killed against the lanterns of our sea marks, the 



