184 Alaudidce. 



Italy A llodola, ' the one who gives praise.' In Spain, on the con- 

 trary, it is Zurriaga, ' the scourge which inflicts punishment/ 



It never perches on trees, but walks or runs on the ground 

 very swiftly, which it is enabled to do by means of the very long 

 straight hind claw, which gives it a firm footing on the ground. 

 In the north of England the country people have a curious 

 notion that, if you are desirous of knowing what the lark says, 

 you must lie down on your back in the field and listen, and you 

 will then hear him say : 



* Up in the lift go we, 

 Tehee, tehee, tehee, tehee ! 

 There's not a shoemaker on the earth 

 Can make a shoe to me, to me ! 

 Why so, why so, why so ? 

 Because my heel is as long as my toe.' 



Elsewhere its song is described by a more ambitious poet : 



* Ecce ! swim tirili, tirili, tirilirlirl tractim 

 Candida per vemum cantat alauda solum.' 



It sings in descending as well as in ascending and while hover- 

 ing in the air; and anon, as some fright or sudden impulse 

 seizes it, down it will come like a stone to the earth and away 

 amongst the corn to its nest, but only to soar upwards again 

 presently, rising on quivering wing almost perpendicularly, and 

 singing more merrily than before ; and we may hear it carolling 

 away long after we have lost sight of the rapidly diminishing 

 speck retreating into the clouds, for ' Excelsior ' is ever the motto 

 of this aspiring bird. Montagu says ' the Field or Meadow Lark 

 is nowhere so plentiful as in the north of Wiltshire,' and I am 

 happy to report that the account he gave some fourscore years 

 ago still holds good. It is still one of our most abundant, as 

 well as one of our most charming, birds, scattered over the broad 

 tracts of corn-land, and as plentiful on Salisbury Plain as in 

 North Wilts. The same author remarks that they are seen in 

 Egypt about Cairo in autumn in incredible numbers, and are 

 supposed to come there from Barbary. In Egypt they are called 

 As/our Djebali, or ' Mountain Birds.' 



c Dyer's ' English Folk-lore,' p. 75. 



