218 THE LARKS 



devastation the number which safely reach our shores is prodigious. 

 On landing, their ranks are subjected to a yet further toll, so that the 

 number of the dead makes a positively appalling total. But this 

 slaughter is no new thing ; for the works of the older ornithologists, 

 from Fuller, 1 Gilbert White, 2 and Montagu 3 onwards, abound with 

 instances thereof. During severe winters this carnage attains its 

 height, for then the number of immigrants is vastly increased. Even 

 in normal years the death-roll is heavy, and in times past was, if 

 possible, heavier still. Dunstable was formerly famous for its larks 

 for table. It was estimated, in 1854, for example, that some 400,000 

 were sent up to London markets alone, 20,000 to 30,000 being often 

 sent up at a time. 4 Huge numbers still reach the London markets 

 annually, not more than a tithe of which are eaten. On the Continent 

 the same ghastly story of greed and waste of life is to be recorded. 

 Keysler, Bechstein, and Naumann, for instance, all show that, 

 in their day, larks were destroyed in France and Germany during 

 each winter by the million. During the winter of 1867-68, for 

 example, 1,255,500 larks were taken into the town of Dieppe alone ! 

 And yet, after these long years of slaughter, the skylark still out- 

 numbers any other Passerine bird in Northern Europe. This 

 numerical superiority is due, no doubt, very largely to its extended 

 geographical range, and its adaptability to circumstances ; but it is 

 also, probably, a long-lived bird, retaining its reproductive powers till 

 the last. Captive birds, at any rate, have been known to live for 

 twenty years. 



So far, it may have been remarked, nothing has been said about 

 the shorelark ; and this because, though in its habits it recalls the 

 skylark, it differs therefrom in too many particulars to be conveniently 

 included in the same description. 



Reference has already been made to the sombre hues of the 

 typical larks, which are of a protective character, affording the 



1 Fuller, History of English Worthies, 1662. 2 Gilbert White, Letters to Barrington, Ixii. 

 ! Montagu, Ornithological Dictionary. 4 Farrell, British Birds, vol. i. p. 631. 



