220 THE LARKS 



buds of small plants, and, during the summer months, insects ; hence, 

 until these last have become plentiful, breeding is necessarily delayed, 

 for the young are fed on insects. Seebohm l took a nest with young 

 at Pustozersk, on the Petchora, on 18th June. In Lapland, he 

 remarks, two broods are reared, in Siberia, owing to the lateness 

 of the season, only one. In hunting for food it runs nimbly, but 

 occasionally hops, like the Lapland-bunting. According to Seebohm, 

 it has never been seen to perch on trees, or even bushes ; thus it 

 is a more exclusively ground-bird than the skylark. This author, 

 in commenting on this fact, remarks that he has once seen common 

 gulls, and also snipe, in trees, and once, in Siberia, shot a golden 

 plover when perched on the summit of a larch tree. 



Like the skylark and woodlark it is a singer, though far inferior 

 to either. It sings continuously in mid-air, mounting like a skylark, 

 and remaining some time on the wing, descends in similar fashion. 

 But it will also sing while perched on some post, rail, or barn top, 

 for the bird is of a sociable disposition and frequents the haunts of 

 man. Woolley tells of one which used to perch on the roof of a 

 house he was staying at on the Varanger Fjord, and sing for several 

 hours in the cool midnight sun ! Its call-note is clear and somewhat 

 deeper than that of the skylark ; hence in Lapland it has earned 

 the name of " bell-bird." 



1 J. A. Harvie-Brown, Travels of a Naturalist in Northern Europe, vol. ii. p. 369. 



