ALA 



ALB 



rank, or become brown. It lays four or 

 five eggs, which are dusky and blotched 

 with deep brown ; its fecundity is inferior 

 to that of the sky -lark, and its numbers 

 are not so great: it breeds earlier, since 

 its young are sometimes flown in the 

 middle of March, and therefore they pair 

 in February, at which time, and not be- 

 fore, they part with their last year's 

 brood ; whereas the common lark does 

 not hatch before the month of May. This 

 is a very tender and delicate bird ; so that 

 it is impossible to rear the young taken 

 out of the nest : but this is the case only 

 in England and such cold climates, for 

 in Italy they are removed from the nest, 

 and reared at first like the nightingale, 

 and afterwards fed upon panic and millet. 

 The wood-lark feeds on beetles, caterpil- 

 lars, and seeds : its tongue is forked ; its 

 stomach muscular and fleshy ; and it has 

 no craw, but a moderate dilatation of the 

 lower part of the oesophagus, and its coeca 

 are very small. It lives ten or twelve 

 years. The males are distinguished from 

 the females by their larger size ; the 

 crown of the head is also of a darker co- 

 lour, and the hind nail longer; its breast 

 is more spotted, and its great wing-quills 

 edged with olive, which in the female is 

 grey. The wood-lark mounts high, war- 

 bling its notes, and hovering in the air ; 

 it flies in flocks during the winter colds ; 

 it is found' in Sweden and Italy, and is 

 probably dispersed through the interve- 

 ning countries, and consequently over 

 the greatest part of Europe. It is also 

 found in Siberia, as far as Kamtschatka, 

 and likewise in the island of Madeira. 

 The best time for taking this bird for the 

 cage is July, or the preceding or follow- 

 ing month. Those that are put into the 

 cage at this time sing presently ; but 

 their song-time is not lasting, for they 

 soon fall to moulting, in which state many 

 die; but if they get over it, they com- 

 monly prove very healthful afterwards, 

 become very tame and familiar, and sing 

 sweetly. Those which are taken in the 

 latter end of September are generally ve- 

 ry strong and sprightly ; but they do not 

 ing till after Christmas. Those taken in 

 January and February finally prove the 

 best of all ; they generally begin singing 

 in two or three days, or at the utmost in 

 a week after they are taken. The cock- 

 bird of this kind is known from the hen 

 by the loudness and length of his call, 

 by his tallnessas he walks about the cage, 

 and by his doubling his notes in the even- 

 ing, as if he were going 1 with his mate 

 TOL. I, 



to roost. A better rule than all others, 

 however, is his singing strong ; for 

 the hen wood-lark sings but very 

 weakly. Both the cock and hen of this 

 kind are tender, and subject to many 

 disorders ; the principal of these are, 

 cramps ; giddiness of the head, and breed- 

 ing lice. Cleanliness is the best cure for 

 the first and the last of these complaints; 

 but we know of no cure for the oth-,a*. A 

 good strong bird will last very well for 

 five or six years, and frequently improve 

 during the whole of this time. The lark 

 is not only a very agreeable bird for the 

 cage, but it will also live upon almost any 

 food, so that it have once a week a fresh 

 tuft of three-leaved grass put into the 

 cage with it. The wood-lark is one of 

 the sweetest of our singing-birds, and is 

 indeed very little inferior to the nightin- 

 gale, when in good health ; but we are 

 not to judge by such as are made feeble 

 by improper food, or want of cleanliness" 

 in their cages. 



ALBINOS, in zoology, a denomination 

 given to the white negroes of Africa, who 

 have light hair, blue eyes, and a white 

 body, resembling that of the Europeans, 

 when viewed at a distance ; but upon a 

 nearer approach, the whiteness is pale 

 and livid, like that of leprous persons, or 

 of a dead body. Their eyes are so weak 

 that they can hardly see any object in the 

 day, or bear the rays of the sun, and yet, 

 when the moon shines, they see as well, 

 and run through the deepest shades of 

 their forest with as much ease and ac- 

 tivity as other men do in the brightest 

 day -light. Their complexion is delicate ; 

 they are less robust and vigorous than 

 other men ; they generally sleep in the 

 day, and go abroad in the night. The 

 negroes regard them as monsters, and will 

 not allow them to propagate their kind. 

 In Africa this variety of the human spe- 

 cies very frequently occurs. Wafer in- 

 forms us that there are white Indians of 

 the same general character among the 

 yellow or copper-coloured Indians of the 

 isthmus of Darien. It has been a subject 

 of inquiry, whether these men form a pe- 

 culiar and distinct race, and a permanent 

 variety of the human species, or are 

 merely individuals who have accidentally 

 degenerated from their original stock. 

 Buffo n inclines to the latter opinion, and 

 he alleges in proof of it, that in the isth- 

 mus of America a husband and wife, 

 both of a copper colour, produced one 

 of these white children ; so that the singu- 

 lar colour and constitution of these white 



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