198 CLASS AVES. 



sistence. It is composed of grass, small dried roots, and the 

 hair of cattle. The eggs, to the number of four or five, have 

 brown spots on a greyish ground. The female hatches only 

 about fourteen or fifteen days, and in somewhat less time than 

 that the young ones are in a state to quit the nest, and dis- 

 pense with her farther care. After having fed them for a few 

 days, she instructs them how to procure their food, and 

 makes them leave the nest before they are entirely covered 

 with feathers. The fowler is often deceived by this, not 

 finding in the nest the young ones, which but a few days 

 before he had viewed recently broken from the shell, and 

 almost entirely naked. 



The vernal amours of the larks leave them suflicient time 

 to have several broods in the summer. With us, and in 

 France and Germany, they have usually but two : but in 

 more southern countries, as Italy, for instance, they have 

 three ; the first in the commencement of May, the second in 

 July, and the third in August. 



The first nourishment taken by the young larks is com- 

 posed of chrysalides, of worms, of caterpillars, and even of 

 the eggs of locusts. This last sort of food makes them in 

 high consideration in the countries which are exposed to the 

 ravages of those insects. They were on this account consi- 

 dered as sacred birds in the island of Lemnos, where the 

 locusts still create, as they do in many other countries of the 

 Levant, incalculable ravages. The services which the same 

 birds render to us, in destroying the germs of the generations 

 of many species of insects which devastate our crops, should 

 induce us to spare them a little more. 



When they are adult, the larks feed principally on different 

 grains, herbs, and vegetable substances in general. They 

 seldom go to water, but quench their thirst most generally by 

 inhaling the dew-drops. 



