ORDER PASSERES. 197 



which he suspended during that portion of the day in 

 which the ardours of a summer's noon imposed silence on 

 the bird. The lark is always silent during the noon ; but 

 when the sun begins to verge towards the west, it fills the air 

 anew with its varied and sonorous modulations. It is silent 

 when the sky is overcast and the weather rainy ; but, 

 generally speaking, it sings during the entire of the fine 

 season. 



Like all other species of the feathered class, the song in the 

 lark is the peculiar attribute of the male ; he rises almost 

 perpendicularly, and by starts, in the air, and describes, in 

 rising, a sort of screw-like curve. He often mounts very high, 

 always singing, and forcing his voice in proportion as he recedes 

 from the earth, so that he is easily heard, even when he is 

 scarcely visible ; he sustains himself a long time in the air, 

 descends slowly as far as ten or twelve feet above the ground, 

 and then precipitates himself downward like an arrow. His 

 voice grows feeble in proportion as he approaches the earth, 

 and he becomes completely mute as soon as he alights 

 upon it. 



From a certain elevation in the air the male is observed, in 

 the season of reproduction, to look out for, and attract some 

 female. When he has succeeded in drawing the attention of 

 one, the latter from below regards him earnestly for some 

 little time, and then flutters lightly towards the place where 

 she observes him about to alight. Constancy, however, is no 

 characteristic of this species of birds, and their unions are but 

 transitory. We must not search amongst them for those 

 models of tender affection and fidelity, so often to be found 

 in some other divisions of the feathered race. 



The female, when fecundated, very soon makes her nest : 

 she conceals it carefully between two lumps of earth. It is 

 flat, not very concave, and nearly devoid of firmness or con- 



