ALAUDA. 



driest situations ; but in winter they de- 

 scend to the plains, and assemble in nu- 

 merous flocks. In the former season they 

 m-e very lean, and in the latter very fat, as 

 they are always on the ground, and con- 

 stantly feeding-. In mounting 1 the air, they 

 ascend almost perpendicularly, by suc- 

 cessive springs, and hover at a great 

 height ; but in descending they make an 

 oblique sweep, unless they are pursued 

 by a ravenous bird, or attracted by a mate, 

 in either of which cases they fall like a 

 stone. These small birds, at the height 

 to which they soar, are liable to be waft- 

 ed by the wind ; and they have been ob- 

 served at sea, clinging to the masts and 

 cordage of ships. Sir Hans Sloane ob- 

 served some of them 40 miles from the 

 coast, and Count Marsigli met with them 

 on the Mediterranean. It is conjectured 

 that those which are found in America 

 have been driven thither by the wind. 

 Some have supposed, that they are birds 

 of passage, at least in the more southern, 

 and milder climates of Europe ; but they 

 are occasionally concealed undeT some 

 rock or sheltered cave. The lark is found 

 in all the inhabited parts of both conti- 

 nents, as far as the Cape of Good Hope ; 

 this bird, and the wood lark, are the only 

 birds which sing whilst they fly. The high- 

 er it soars, the more it strains its voice, 

 and lowers it till it quite dies away in de- 

 scending. When it ascends beyond our 

 sight, its music is distinctly heard; and its 

 song, which is full of swells and falls, and 

 thus delightful for its variety, commences 

 before the earliest dawn. In a state of 

 freedom, the lark begins its song early 

 in the spring, which is its season of love 

 and pairing, and continues to warble 

 during the whole of the summer. The 

 honourable Dairies Harrington reckons 

 this among the best of the singing larks; 

 and as it copies the warble of every 

 other bird, he terms it a mocking-bird. 

 These birds, which are esteemed a deli- 

 cacy for the table, though Linnaeus thinks 

 the food improper for gravelly complaints, 

 are taken with us in the greatest num- 

 bers, in the neighbourhood of Dunstable. 

 The season begins about the 14th of 

 September, and ends the 25th of Febru- 

 ary ; and during this time about 4000 

 dozen are caught, for supplying the Lon- 

 don markets. Those caught in the day 

 are taken in clap-nets, till the 14th of 

 November. But when the weather be- 

 comes gloomy, and also in the night, the 

 larker makes use of a trammel-net, 27 

 or 28 feet long, and five broad, which is 

 put on two poles 18 feet long 1 , and carried 



by men under each arm, who pass over- 

 the fields, and quarter the grounds, as a 

 setting dog. When they see or feel a 

 lark strike the net, they drop it down, 

 and thus the birds are taken. The dark- 

 est nights are the most proper for their 

 sport ; and the net will not only take 

 larks, but all other birds that roost on the 

 ground; among which are wood-cocks, 

 snipes, partridges,! quails, field-fares, and 

 several others. In the depth of winter, 

 people sometimes take great numbers of 

 larks by nooses of horse-hair. The me- 

 thod is" this : take 100 or 200 yards of 

 packthread ; fasten at every six inches a 

 noose made of double horse-hair; at every 

 20 yards the line is to be pegged down to 

 the ground, and so left ready to take 

 them. The time to use this is when the 

 ground is covered with snow, and the 

 larks are to be allured to it by some 

 white oats, scattered among the nooses. 

 They will soon fly to them, and, in 

 eating, will be hung by the nooses. They 

 must be taken away as soon as three or 

 four are hung, otherwise the rest will be 

 frightened; but though the others are 

 scared away just where the sportsman 

 comes, some will be feeding at the other 

 end of the line, and the sport maybe thus 

 continued for a long time. As the sky- 

 lark is a kind of mocking-bird, and apt to 

 catch the note of any other which hangs 

 near it, even after its own note is fixed, 

 the bird-fanciers often place it next to 

 one which has not been long caught, in 

 order to keep the caged sky-lark honest. 

 Plate II. Aves, fig. 1. 



2. A. arborea, wood-lark of English 

 writers, is specifically characterised by a 

 white annular belt, encircling its head. 

 This bird is smaller than the sky-lark, 

 and of a shorter thicker form ; the co- 

 lours of the plumage are paler ; the first 

 feather of the wing is shorter than the 

 second ; the hind claw is very long, and 

 somewhat bent; it perches on trees; it 

 haunts the uncultivated tracts near copses, 

 without penetrating the woods ; whence 

 its name ; its song resembles more the 

 warble of the nightingale, or the whist- 

 ling of the black-bird, than that of the 

 sky-lark, its note being less sonorous 

 and less varied, though not less sweet ; 

 and it is heard not only in the day, but in 

 the night, both when it flies and when it 

 sits on a bough. This bird builds on the 

 ground, and forms its nest on the out- 

 side with moss, and on the inside with 

 dried bents, lined with a few hairs, and 

 conceals it with a turf; and the situation 

 it selects is ground where the grass is 



