THE SKYLARK. 159 



adding greater charms to the smiling face of Nature 

 around. We know not which, if any of these causes be 

 the right one, for all the information we can glean from 

 the subject is from inference. Would that some chatter- 

 ing Magpie could gain her long lost powers of speech, 

 and give us a few hints on this puzzling subject. After 

 the young have gained the use of their wings, they are 

 abandoned by the parent birds, who very often have 

 another brood before the autumnal moult takes place in 

 August. Yet as far as I can learn the second brood are 

 abandoned as soon as matured, and the Lark, though 

 occurring in plenty all around, appears as a solitary 

 species. 



The Skylark loses his charming song in the autumnal 

 moult, never to fully regain it until the following spring, 

 though we sometimes hear a solitary specimen in the 

 waning days of autumn, or on those calm and tranquil 

 days that so greatly help to break the monotony of a 

 long and cheerless winter. By the first appearance of 

 winter, even as early as October, or more often when 

 November's blasts herald its approach, the Skylark 

 shuns its solitary life, and becomes a gregarious species, 

 to remain so throughout the winter. Districts most 

 favoured with their presence are the stubbles sown with 

 clover and the wild weedy pastures. Here, as the 

 observer wanders on, the birds fly from under his feet 

 and all around him, uttering a musical note as they rise 

 and speedily unite into one flock, when, after wheeling 

 about in the air for a time, they again alight in another 

 part of the cover. Upon alighting the Lark stands erect 

 and glances suspiciously around, ere it nestles down 

 amongst the herbage. Here the sombre colours of its 

 plumage harmonise so closely with the surroundings, 

 that, once nestled, it is comparatively safe, and will 



