234 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



to turnip and wheat fields, and to fallow lands. 

 They are at this season very fat, and many are 

 shot, or taken by the fowler for food. Tlie larks' 

 of Dunstable are considered of very superior 

 flavour, and they are annually snared in that 

 neiglibourhood, and sent to the London markets. 

 In most countries of Europe, larks are prized as 

 delicacies ; and Montbelliard says that in France 

 a hundred dozen or more are sometimes taken at 

 once. These bu*ds arc very plentiful in Germany, 

 and are there subject to an excise, wliich Keysler 

 says produces six thousand dollars yearly to Leipsic. 

 The duty at Leipsic is about two and a half 

 sterling for every sixty birds; and it is sometimes 

 known to produce twelve thousand crowns. The 

 fields of tliat neighbourhood are sometimes literally 

 covered with these birds, from ^licliaelmas till the 

 end of November. On the Continent this fowling 

 for larks is considered a good country sport, and 

 the French nobility formerly practised it ; but in 

 England it is left to the bird-catcher. In France, 

 during very severe weather, the larks have been 

 known to come in parties to villages, and even to 

 take refuge in houses, and having been totally 

 exhausted by want of food, have been easily killed 





