LARKS. 



419 



retains its kindly character, a fact well known to bird-dealers, who often place 

 an old skylark in a cage with a brood of young birds, knowing by experience 

 that the former is sure to take compassion upon the helpless nestlings. The young 

 birds reared from the nest become exceedingly attached to their owners, and readily 

 acquire the notes of any bird under whose tuition they may be placed. Such birds 

 as are captured adult, and in open weather, are, however, apt to pine for the loss 

 of their liberty : but those that are caught when deep snow is lying on the ground 

 are more susceptible of domestication, and soon begin to sing. The eggs of the 

 skylark are white in ground-colour, thickly blotched and freckled with brown and 

 grey. Young birds may be found in the nest at any time from April to September. 

 Skylarks do not wash, but delight in cleansing their plumage by dusting their 

 feathers in dry earth : this being done in order to remove ticks or other parasites that 

 maybe adhering to them. On their migrations, skylarks often appear at the light- 

 houses in dense hordes, and vast numbers are killed upon the island of Heligoland. 

 Although the song is principally uttered during the spring and summer months, 

 we have often heard wild larks singing in snatches in November, and in the High- 

 lands the skylark lie-ins to sing in summer about an hour before daybreak. 



The food of the skylark consists of the seeds of oats, wheat, barley, and wild 

 plants, together with such insects as it meets with in the ploughed fields. In 

 plumage these birds are subject to considerable variation, so much so as to 

 constitute local races. Black, white, and cream-coloured varieties occur occa- 

 sionally, but only in very small numbers in comparison with the abundance of 

 birds iu ordinary plumage. The adult has the upper-parts la-own, tinged more 

 or less with rufous, many of the feathers having dark centres: the wings are dark 

 brown, the primaries being narrowly edged with white on the outer webs; the tail 

 is brown, with the exception of the outer feathers, which are nearly all white; the 

 throat and breast are buff, streaked with brown : and the rest of the under surface 

 creamy white. Both sexes are alike. 



Although formerly included in the same genus with the skylark, 

 the woodlark (I/idlula arborea) is now very generally referred to 

 a genus apart, of which it is the sole representative. It may be readily 

 distinguished from the former by its shorter tail, more distinctly marked breast, 

 and by a distinct light streak over the eye and ear-coverts : while its size is 

 considerably smaller. It is figured ou the illustration on p. 418. Unlike the 

 skylark, which frequents open country, the woodlark prefers fields that border 

 upon woods, — "in localities," writes Mr. Dresser, "where the soil is sandy 

 and partially covered with second growth, large trees being sparsely scattered 

 here and there ; this species is generally numerous but it does not frequent 

 the dense forest. In its habits it is lively and sprightly, fond of the society 

 of its congeners, and not quarrelsome, but rather more shy than the sky- 

 lark. It frequents the ground far more than is commonly supposed, and 

 indeed only perches occasionally upon the outer branches, chiefly during the 

 breeding-season, when singing It seeks its food almost always, if not solely, on 

 the ground, and runs with celerity and ease. It roosts on the ground in open 

 places close to the woods, under weeds or grass, or in the old weed-covered furrows, 

 and retires early to rest. It is more affected by the cold weather than the skylark. 



