SKYLARK. — Alauda arvensis. 



fledged. Even when young, the sexes can be distinguished by the deep yellow of the 

 breast and the more upright carriage. Dealers say that the most certain mode of 

 ascertaining the sex of the Skylark is to lay it ilat on its back, when, if it be a male, it 

 will spread its tail like a fan. 



The flesh of the Lark is very excellent, and thousands of tliese birds are annually 

 captured and sent to market. Although it may seem a pity to eat a bird of such 

 musical capacities, the Lark multiplies so rapidly that their numbers seem to suffer no 

 perceptible diminution, and possibly their quick death at the hands of the bird-catcher 

 may be a merciful mode of terminating their existence. The food of the Lark consists 

 of grasshoppers, beetles, and other insects, worms, spiders, and various grubs, all of which 

 it finds upon the ground. In the spring and autumn it varies its diet with vegetable 

 food, eating young grass shoots in the spring, and seeds of the wheat in the summer. 



The upward flight of this bird is rather remarkable, as it does not consist of a 

 diagonal shoot like that of the pigeon, nor a succession of leaps like that of the eagle 

 and hawk, but is a continual fl\ittering ascent, taking a spii'al course, widening as the 



