2oG HISTORY OF 



little animul, insensible of its mist'ortunav« situation : it is the 

 landscape, the grove, the golden break ot day, the contest upon 

 the hawthorn, the fluttering from branch to branch, the soaring 

 in the air, and the answering of its young, that gives the bird's 



The Short-toed Lark is met with in the Canaries, iu the southern provin- 

 ces of France, and especially in Champagne, wlu-re the species is remark, 

 ahly numerous. These larks arrive in the last mentioned country about tiie 

 end of April, and are universally found in dry and sandy situations. They 

 liave several broorfs, and the first takes place soon after their arriviJ. The 

 uest is constructed on the ground, of few materials, principally the blades 

 «f dog-'s grass, and is usually found in a wheel-rut, or track of a horse's 

 hoof. The eggs are three or four, gray in colour, and spotted with a brown- 

 ish gray, which spots are more confluent towards the gross end. As soon 

 as the young can manage for themselves, they quit the untilled lands of 

 Champagne, unite in numerous bodies, and seek fresher abodes and oaten 

 fields. They leave this province at the end of August, and do not return 

 until the following spring. Morning and evening, all the males of the 

 plain assemble, and, at a very elevated height in the air, produce a concert, 

 which is heard very distinctly, even though the birds are out of sight. This 

 song is more agreeable and melodious than that of the common lark. They 

 seldom sing in the middle of the day, and never on the ground, but utter 

 then a peculiar sort of cry. This lark can run with the rapidity of a field 

 mouse, especially when disturbed, and on the point of taking to flight All 

 the larks are pulverating birds ; but this one is so particularly attached to 

 powdering itself with dust, that, on being supplied with some in a state of 

 captivity, it will immediately testify its joy by a little soft cry, frequently 

 repeated, and by precipitate movements of the wings, and bristling of all 

 the feathers. It will plunge instantly into sand or ashes, as other birds do 

 into water, remains there a long time, wallowing iu all sorts of ways, and 

 does not come out of it until it is so covered with it, that its plumage is 

 scarcely to be distinguished. 



The Clapper Lark is of South Africa. It usually makes its nest in some 

 small grass, and lays from fonr to five eggs, of a greenish gray. It seldom 

 rises more than from fifteen to twenty feet above the ground, and makes a 

 particular noise, occasioned by the precipitate motion of its wings, whi.;h 

 is heard at a g^reat distance. When in the season of its amours it rises to 

 the height above-mentioned, it utters a cry resembling the syllables jui-?/>j7, 

 the hist syllable of which is elongated during its descent. It descends with 

 the wings closed, and in an oblique linG to the earth, where it rests scarcely 

 half a minute, and then rises again. It sings in the morning, in the even, 

 ing at sun-set, and for most part of the night. 



Tlie Red.backed Lark chiefly delights in plains abounding with bushes. 

 It perches readily on these, and even on the trees which are at the cages 

 uf woods. Its song is agreeable. 



The Alpine Lark inhabits the most northern portions of the two contl. 

 nents. In both quarters of the globe these larks, wliose flesh is wholesome 

 food, though without flavour, like that of most American birds, quit their 

 winter retreat in the early days of spring, to withdraw into the countries 

 which :u-e nearest to the pole, wherein perfect security fr(»m the aggressions 



