12 SKY LAltK. 







unusually severe weather, when they move southwards in 

 numerous bodies. In some seasons they continue together 

 until a comparatively late period. As many as sixty have 

 been seen in a flock on the 24th. of March: this was the 

 case in the year 1838. 



It would appear that many visit us at that season from 

 the continent, and in the south of England they are, at such 

 times, seen to move in a westerly direction. They also cross 

 from Scotland to Ireland. 



Larks are thoroughly terrestrial in their habits; it is but 

 rarely that they alight on a tree, even a low bush, a wall, 

 or a hedge; though I have several times seen them do so. 

 They pass the day, except when soaring, and roost at night, 

 upon the ground. They are sprightly in all their motions, 

 and if anything like danger be observed or suspected, they 

 may be seen frequently stopping to look round, raising them- 

 selves up, and elevating the feathers of the head as a crest; 

 or else crouching down, and hiding themselves as much as 

 they can, which the assimilation of their colour to that of 

 the places they frequent, renders easy: ordinarily, on the 

 ground, they move rather quickly about in a running manner, 

 now quicker, and now more slow: they often lie very close 

 till you almost walk up to them. They may be frequently 

 seen dusting themselves in the roads, and at other times they 

 seem to be fond of settling themselves in such places. This 

 very day, on which I have written the foregoing, the 3rd. 

 of March, I disturbed a pair, which rose up from the middle 

 of the road on which I was walking; and on coming back 

 an hour or two afterwards, I found that they had returned, 

 and they rose again from the same place: there w r as not a 

 particle of the 'March dust,' 'a peck' of which is said to be 

 'worth a king's ransom;' but the traces of frost and snow 

 were still remaining. 



These birds, like so many others, shew a great attachment 

 to their young. In 'The Naturalist,' old series, Mr. Edward 

 Blyth mentions that a mower having accidentally cut off with 

 a scythe the upper part of a nest, without injuring the sitting 

 bird, she did not fly away; and it was discovered about an 

 hour afterwards that she had, in the interval, constructed a 

 dome of dry grass over the nest. Instances are on record in 

 which they have removed their eggs as a precautionary means 

 of preservation; and Mr. Jesse records, in his 'Gleanings in 

 Natural History,' that a clergyman's attention being drawn, 



