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THE WOODLARK. 303 



Directions for bringing up the young. 



they must not be taken before tbey are well fea- 

 thered ; because, when they are too young, they 

 are more subject to the cramp and scouring, 

 which commonly kills them: put them into a 

 basket with a little hay at the bottom, or some 

 such thing, where they may lie clean and warm, 

 tying them close down : feed them with sheep's 

 heart, or other lean flesh meat, raw, mixed with 

 a hard boiled egg, a little bread, and hemp-seed 

 bruised or ground, all chopped together as fine 

 as possible, and made a little moist with clean 

 water, every two hours, or oftener, give them 

 five or six small bits, taking great care never to 

 overload their stomachs. The wild ones feed 

 upon beetles, caterpillars, and other insects, and 

 also upon almost any seeds they meet with. 



The branchers are taken in June and July, 

 with a net and a hawk, after the same manner as 

 the skylarks. They are to be found harbouring 

 about gravel-pits, upon heath and common land, 

 and in pasture fields. Tor fear of the hawk, they 

 will lie so close, that sometimes they suffer them- 

 selves to be taken up with the hand. These 

 birds soon grow tame. 



The next season is for Michaelmas birds, which 

 are taken with clap-nets in great numbers in Sep- 

 tember, and are counted better birds than what 

 are caught at any other time of the year, because 

 keeping them all the winter makes them more 

 tame than birds taken in January or February, 

 and will sing eight or nine months in the year. 



