THE SKY LARK. 177 



DISEASES Besides those which have been named in the Introduction, 



these birds are very subject to a kind of scurf or yellow crust round the 

 base of the beak. The best remedy is to take care that they have good 

 food ; the second universal paste agrees with them particularly well ; but 

 greens, ants' eggs, meal-worins, or other insects, must be added. With this 

 food they may be preserved healthy for many years in the house. Instances 

 have been known of larks which have lived in this way for thirty years. 



MODE OF TAKING. It would take too long a time to describe all the 

 modes of catching larks which are in use. It is enough to say that with 

 day and night nets, known by the name of lark nets, so large a number of 

 these birds are taken alive in the open country, that it is easy to have a 

 choice of both males and females. This lark snaring is accomplished by 

 placing a considerable number of nets perpendicularly like walls, which are 

 called day-nets, towards which, in the dusk, the birds are forced by means 

 of a long rope, which is drawn along the ground, and drives them forward ; 

 in the night a square net called a night-net is carried to a spot where it is 

 known that many larks are collected in the stubble, and there they are 

 covered just when they begin to flutter. 



If, in the spring, it is wished to procure a good singing male, for some 

 are better than others, a lark whose wings are tied, and with a little forked 

 lime-twig fixed to its back, must be carried to the place where such a bird 

 is to be found. As soon as it is let loose, and the desired male has per- 

 ceived it from high in the air, he will fall upon it like an arrow and attack 

 it ; but soon, the dupe of his jealousy, he will find himself caught by the 

 lime. 



ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES The very pleasing song of the sky-lark con- 

 sists of several stanzas or strains, composed entirely of trills and flourishes, 

 interrupted from time to time by loud whistling. I have already said that 

 the lark has great abilities for learning. The young readily imitate the 

 notes of all the birds in the same room with them, and the old sometimes 

 succeed also : this, however, is not general ; for among birds as among 



to become mothers, and which, in the order of nature, ought, it would seem, to 

 precede it. 



" In the month of May, a young lark was brought to me which could not feed 

 itself; I fed it, and it could hardly peck up, when a brood of four young ones of 

 the same species was brought to me from another place. She exhibited a singular 

 affection for these new comers, which were not much younger than herself; she 

 nursed them day and night, warmed them under her wings, and pushed the food 

 into their mouths with her beak ; nothing could distract her from these interesting 

 duties. If she was removed from the young ones, she flew back to them as soon as 

 she was free, without ever thinking of escaping, as she might have done a hundred 

 times. Her affection increased so much that she literally forgot to eat and drink ; 

 and she lived only on the food which was given to her as well as to her adopted 

 young, and she died at length, consumed by this sort of maternal passion. None of 

 the young survived her, they died one after the other, so necessary had her ma- 

 ternal cares become to them ; so entirely were these cares produced by affection, 

 and reciprocated." 



This, it appears, is more than could be said of the persons who had the care of 

 these unfortunate little birds. TRANSLATOR 



