BRITISH BIRDS. 89 



the power of flight ; but as there are flightless birds which inhabit continents, 

 the same argument does not apply to them. How the loss of flight came 

 about I do not say ; " the how," that is ; but " the why," according to my 

 theory, is as I state. Birds should be looked upon in connexion with all other 

 life, animal and vegetable, and their work with reference to the earth, most 

 parts of which require their presence to preserve a proper balance in nature. 



In my view, this globe requires birds, beasts, fishes, insects, poi- 

 sonous serpents, &c. If we ask the reason, we may not always be ready to 

 answer ; and man constantly in his eff"ort to improve, by destruction of what 

 he thinks useless, blunders. By an invisible law those creatures which are 

 required are found in suitable situations. 



But to return to the Larks. The mode of shooting them on these downs 

 has been so well described by Mr. A. E. Knox in the ' Ornithological Rambles,' 

 under the head of " Chasse au miroir," that I cannot well add any thing, 

 but will only give a woodcut of " a Lark-glass," and state that during " the 

 flight," when the sun shines on the revolving implement, the poor birds come 

 and are shot as fast as a gun can be loaded and fired — which I imagine to arise 

 partly from curiosity, and partly from the well-known attraction which fire 

 or flame has for birds, beasts, insects, and fishes : the sparkle of the sun 

 in the glass looks like flame. But, of course, this is only a theory of my own. 

 I have seen other birds attracted (Rooks, for instance), but not so much as 

 Larks ; and I do not assign the above cause as other than a possible one. 

 In confirmation, I may call attention to the mode of taking Larks in A.ndalucia 

 at night with a bell and lantern by a boy. Lt.-Col. L. Howard L. Irby, in 

 the ' Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,' p. 112, says he has "known a 

 boy bring in six or seven dozen Sky-Larks at a time " in this way. He adds, 

 " Calandras, Buntings, Larks, in fact any birds that sleep on the ground, can 

 be thus taken." Finally, a watch has one regulator, animal life has two, 

 pleasure and pain. Of these, pain is the root and basis of migration. With 

 certain exceptions, migration is occasioned by uneasiness. 



