THE LARKS 57 



wonderful preaching, and they offered any amount of money for the 

 preacher, whose owner would not part with him for all the gold that 

 was ever dug at Ballarat, or any of the richest diggings in that new 

 El Dorado. 



Wealth could not buy the bonny bird, 

 For memories of the dear old home 



In its sweet song were seen and heard; 

 However far the feet might roam, 



This birdie's song could bring them back, 



To tread again youth's very track. 



Such honour then has this little songster, one of the very commonest 

 of our common birds, known to everybody, beloved by all; it places 

 such trust in man, that it builds its nest under his very feet, always 

 on the ground, in a ridge or hollow, with the slender grasses all about 

 it, and the blue sky in which it loves to sing, bending over. During 

 the spring and summer months, and also late into the autumn, the 

 music of not one Lark only, but many Larks, may generally be heard 

 in the Chatham Cemetery, situated on a hill commanding a beautiful 

 view of the Medway and surrounding country. One after the other the 

 little birds keep ascending and descending, pouring out their joyous 

 strains, as if endeavouring to cheer the mourners, and point out that 

 their thoughts should take a heavenward flight; very sweet and com- 

 forting is this music to the heart of one bereaved, at least we have 

 found it so, and were glad to find that the many Larks which made 

 their nests amid the long grass inside the cemetery walls were cared 

 for and protected from injury. Within the nest, if one had looked, 

 when the hen bird was absent for a short time, he would have seen 

 four or five eggs of a dark purplish brown colour, with indistinct 

 markings of a darker hue. If it is much later than the end of May, 

 the like number of tiny nestlings may be seen, opening their little 

 yellow bills for the food which their parents will soon bring them. 

 The time necessary for incubation, that is, sitting on the eggs before 

 they are hatched, is about a fortnight; there are commonly two broods 

 in the year. The young do not quit the nest until fully fledged, and 

 then generally come home to sleep for awhile. Like all ground-builders, 

 they often fall a prey to prowling weasels, polecats, and such like 

 "varmin," as the gamekeepers call them, and even the sleek water-rat, 

 if the nest be anywhere near its haunts, will sometimes make a meal 

 of young Larks, and old ones too, if he can catch them sleeping. 



Although placed on the ground, the nest of the Sky Lark is not 

 very easily discovered, being hidden in a clump of thick grass, close 

 beneath the roots of a bush, or amid the thick corn-stalks, where it 



