100 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



Sky-Lark. A! and a arvensis, Linn. 



Eesidont in part, generolly distributed and abundant. Breeds. 



The Sky-Larks that remain with us to breed are few in comparison 

 with the hosts tliat come to us in autumn and Avinter from the north 

 and east. Lar<rc flocks arrive in the autumn and remain with us during 

 the winter, feeding on the stubble-fields ; but, if the weather be excep- 

 tionalh' severe, they congregate on the south coast and move on further 

 west, or, becoming congested in the district, fly out to sea in quest of a 

 warmer climate. In heavy snow, however, they become so weak from 

 want of food that thousands perish, especially if the cold spell comes in 

 February. In winter, as we have noticed, Sky-Larks, almost to a bird^ 

 disappear from the cold highlands of Mid Devon, resorting to the coast. 



In the winter of 1800 we were Woodcock-shooting on Lundy Island, 

 when there was a heavy fall of snow, with a long continuance of hard' 

 black frost. After three or four days of this weather Sky-Larks began to 

 arrive on the island, and every day the frost lasted there were fresh acces- 

 sions. "While we were trying the top of the island we could see flock 

 after flock drop in, until the Larks became so thick upon the ground that 

 often several would 1)e shot unavoidably when a Woodcock or Snipe rose 

 before the guns. Numbers perished from cold and hunger, and had their 

 })0ues picked by the hungry rats, which swarm upon the island. In deep 

 snow Sky-Larks crowd into kitchen-gardens to feed upon the various 

 greens. We have then watched them standing round a plant picking off 

 the green flesh from the leaves on all sides, until nothing is left but the 

 bare ribs, and the snow is trampled hard with their feet. But in the 

 severe winter of 1890-91 many died in our garden, becoming too weak 

 and frost-bitten even to feed upon the tops of the greens which stood out 

 above the snow. Although the poetical idea of the Skj'-Lark associates 

 his song with the blue vault of heaven, from which it floats down to earth, 

 yet when the male bird is in vigorous song at the nesting-time he sings 

 with equal indifference whether he is mounting the air, or standing on a 

 clod ii]ion the ground or on the top of a stone wall, and we have even 

 heard him singing from the top of a herlge. We had a new revelation 

 resy)ecting the character of the Sky-Lark when we were recentl}* in a 

 bird-catcher's shop, and in a long cage containing a dozen or more lately 

 captured Larks witnessed a most desperate combat between two young 

 cocks, while others stood round ruffled and bleeding from recent contests. 

 We had no idea before that they were so pugnacious. But being huddled 

 together in a small cage is enough to make any birds quarrelsome ! 



Fuller, in his 'History of Enclish Worthies' fLonclon, '[C>Ci2, parti, p. 273), mentions 

 the great wonder of an incredible number of Larks, "for multitude like Quails in the 

 wildernesse," that visited the city of Exeter during its siege by the Parliamentary forces 

 in the cold winter of l(i4."-4(), and contributed to tlie resources of its defenders (rf. 

 ' Yarrell's B. Birds,' 4tli ed. i. p. (119). Montagu records their extraordinary abundance 

 in tlie winter of 1803 in South Devon (Orn. Diet., Suppl.), and, as before stated, vast 

 flocks \isited Lundy Island at Cliristmas 1860 (M. A. M., Zool. p. 7381). On the24tU 

 February, 1873, when the weather was e.\tremely severe and the ground covered with. 



