BRITISH SONG BIEDS. 301 



times used ; to take them by the latter method, it is necessary to 

 have a caged titlark as a call- bird, which you take out with you, and 

 when you have discovered a wild one, put your call-bird down on the 

 ground, at a few yards from where you heard the other, and scatter 

 a few well-limed twigs round the cage; secrete yourself, and tho 

 wild lark hearing your caged bird, will approach, and most probably 

 settle on one of the twigs ; the instant he perches, you must rush 

 forward and take him, or he will free himself from the twigs, and 

 escape ; tie his wings, and when you put him in a cage, supply him 

 with some meal-worms, ants' eggs, or caterpillars, and bruised hemp- 

 seed, and accustom him, by degrees, to skylark's food that is, give 

 him meal-worms and ants' eggs plentifully for the first day or two, 

 then mix a few poppy and hemp-seeds with the worms, and increase 

 the quantity of seeds gradually. As this lark perches, its cage must 

 have two bars, but in all other respects it should be made like the 

 skylark's. 



THE WOODLAKK. 



If the woodlark cannot soar so high 

 nor sing so sweetly as the skylark, it 

 can do what the latter can't, and that 

 is, it can either sit and sing on the 

 branch of a tree, or have a fly and 

 carry its music along with it, just as 

 it pleases. But though so partial to 

 perching on a branch, like the sky- 

 lark, it builds on the ground. Some 

 bird-fanciers say it possesses a more 

 musical and sonorous note than most 

 other singing-birds, but its imitative faculties are not very good, for 

 unless it is reared from the nest near some other birds, it will not 

 learn their strains. In plumage it resembles the titlark, but the 

 upper parts are not so clearly defined ; a white stripe passes from the 

 bill over each eye, towards the nape of the neck ; its under parts are 

 white tinged with yellow on the throat, and red on the breast or 

 spotted with black ; its tail is not so long as that of the other laiKS, 

 consequently the bird looks thicker in its shape. It builds a tole- 

 rable nest among heath, in hedges, high grass, and under little 

 hillocks. The young birds may be reared from the nest upon bread 

 soaked in milk, and ants' eggs. In June and July, woodlarks may 

 be caught with a clap-net, and their haunts are principally pasture- 

 lands, gravel- pits, and heaths. The best food to give them after 

 their capture is a mixture of poppy- seeds, oats, young wheat, fresh 

 and dried ants' eggs and meal-worms, minced sheep's heart, mutton, 

 veal, or lamb. Some persons, instead of the above food, give their 

 larks finely-bruised hemp-seed mixed with bread, and some ants' 

 eggs, twice or thrice a day, and a piece of bread which has been 

 soaked in milk. The bottom of the cage should be covered with red 

 sand, and that and the water changed every day. When the bird is 

 out of order, giye him a few hog-lice every day ; if he is troubled witfc 



