152 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



in allotment gardens or in turnip or rape fields, and 

 the mischief they then do is certainly serious : 

 I have a note of such a visitation, dated the 30th of 

 January, 1865 : it is as follows : " Since the late 

 frost set in very unusual numbers of Sky Larks 

 made their appearance, hoth in flocks and singly : 

 they have nearly destroyed a field of rape for me, 

 there being nothing of the leaves left but the thick 

 stems ; the whole field looks like a field of turnips 

 that had been attacked by the "black arm} r ," nothing 

 but the skeletons of the leaves being left. I had one 

 shot at this flock, and killed enough for a good dish 

 of Larks, but they were very thin and not good 

 eating; their crops and throats were full of the 

 green rape. Had I been so disposed I might have 

 killed almost any number, for they were so thick on 

 the ground that the one shot I had killed thirteen, 

 and the whole flock almost immediately settled 

 down again in the same field. I also noticed some 

 of the same sort of mischief done to some cabbages 

 in an allotment field near." 



In the severe weather, in other winters, I have 

 seen these birds do some mischief, but nothing to 

 compare with that above mentioned. In spite, how- 

 ever, of these occasional inroads, I think that, in 

 consideration of the destruction of various insects 

 and of the seeds of many sorts of weeds, we may 

 fairly decide the question of useful or mischievous 

 in favour of the Sky Lark. 



