THE SHORE-LARK. 19' 



nevertheless agreeably Lark-like ; its call-note, with which it cheerfully greets me 

 as soon as it hears my step, two large rooms off, is loud and mellow. Most of 

 the birds are peevish in captivity, and tire themselves by impetuously fluttering 

 against and shaking the bars of their cage ; this is probably due to the fact of 

 one's not being able to avoid selecting the prettily-marked old males for cage- 

 birds. My example, however, which I have kept now for more than ten years, 

 is so tame that it will take flies from the finger, and even allows me to put my 

 hand into the cage and softly stroke its back with my finger. 



In the spring this bird will accept so-called earwigs, and in the summer flies, 

 but rejects both these insects as autumn approaches. Small and moderately sized 

 moths are always acceptable, and spiders are received with the utmost readiness at 

 all times of the year. Its staple food, however, is Canary-seed, and as much 

 green food as is procurable. Sustained in this manner, the bird keeps in excellent 

 condition, renewing its plumage every autumn to such perfection that it is in no 

 way inferior to a bird living in a state of nature." 



This is a point which I have always insisted upon, with regard to the treat- 

 ment of Larks To keep them in condition the grass- and other seed which they 

 freely eat when wild, must be represented by Canary-seed : they will eat millet, 

 but they undoubtedly prefer Canary, for if the two seeds are mixed together and 

 supplied in one pot, the Canary is all consumed before the millet is touched. It 

 is also no uncommon thing for a Lark to husk every seed before swallowing it ; 

 this is done either by fixing it in a convenient crevice and hammering it with the 

 end of the bill, or by giving it two or three blows in the feeding trough ; but a 

 hungry Lark swallows it with the husk on, and probably rejects it as a pellet 

 later, as most insectivorous birds do. 



When one considers that, during the winter, Larks would be simply starved 

 to death if their life depended upon insects ; and consequently that they then 

 subsist almost entirely upon seeds of weeds or grain ; it becomes evident that to 

 feed them in captivity solely on soaked ants' cocoons, yolk of egg, and mealworms, 

 is in the highest degree unnatural. 



To obtain good singers of any of the Larks you may either hand-rear them, 

 purchase them when recently fledged, that is as " branchers " (the bird-catcher's 

 term for young Larks) or catch them when fully adult ; it matters very little, only 

 hand-reared birds and branchers will be tamer at first than adults (although even 

 these become perfectly tame in a few mouths) and, in addition to their natural 

 song, will pick up parts of the songs of other birds. 



