Motions of Larks 



lark comes down, as it were, in one or two stages : after 

 dropping say fifty feet, the wings are employed, and she 

 shoots forward horizontally some way, which checks the 

 velocity. Repeating this twice or more, she reaches the 

 ground safely. In rising up to sing she often traces a 

 sweeping spiral in the air at first, going round once or 

 twice; after which, seeming to settle on the line she means 

 to ascend, she goes up almost perpendicularly in a series 

 of leaps, as it were pausing a moment to gather impetus, 

 and then shooting upwards till a mere speck in the sky. 

 When ten or twelve larks are singing at once, all within a 

 narrow radius a thing that may be often witnessed from 

 these downs in the spring the charm of their vivacious 

 notes is greater than when one solitary bird alone dis- 

 courses sweet music which is lost in the blue dome over- 

 head. 



At that time they seem to feed only a few minutes 

 consecutively, and then, as if seized with an uncontrollable 

 impulse, rush up into the air to deliver a brief song, 

 descend, and repeat the process for hours. They have a 

 way, too, of rising but six or eight yards above the earth, 

 spreading the wings out and keeping them nearly still, 

 floating slowly forward, all the while uttering one sweet 

 note softly. The sward by the roadside appears to have 

 a special attraction for them ; they constantly come over 

 from the arable fields, alight there, and presently return. 

 In the early spring, when love-making is in full progress, the 

 cornfields where th# young green blades are just showing, 

 become the scene of the most amusing rivalry. Far as the 

 eye can see across the ground it seems alive with larks 

 chasing each other to and fro, round and round, with 

 excited calls, flying close to the surface, continually 

 alighting, and springing up again. A gleam of sunshine 



B 2 



