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rapidly perambulating the square bit of faded turf in its cage, it enacts its part with apparently 

 as much delight as when mounting ' towards heaven's gate.' This bird always reposes on the 

 ground at night, squatting frequently in the barest places. Its principal enemies, besides Man, 

 are Polecats, Weasels, Merlins, Sparrow-Hawks, and Kestrels. The latter sometimes devour the 

 young birds, which also fall a prey to the quadrupeds mentioned. I remember seeing in a grass- 

 field many years ago, a number of Larks hovering over a particular spot, and incessantly uttering 

 cries that seemed to me indicative of anxiety or distress. On going up, I observed a Polecat 

 rush through the grass and disappear. It had been disturbed while in the act of eating the 

 young birds in a nest, and had killed the whole ; for those which remained had the head bitten 

 through." 



Yarrell gives the following particulars : — " The strong attachment of the parent Lark to its 

 eggs and young has long been known ; and a remarkable instance is thus described by Mr. Blyth 

 in the second volume of ' The Naturalist.' ' The other day some mowers actually shaved off the 

 upper part of the nest of a Sky-Lark without injuring the female, which was sitting on her 

 young ; still she did not fly away, and the mowers levelled the grass all round her without her 

 taking further notice of their proceedings. A young friend of mine, son of the owner of the 

 crop, witnessed this, and about an hour afterwards went to see if she was safe, when, to his 

 great surprise, he found that she had actually constructed a dome of dry grass over the nest 

 during the interval, leaving an aperture on one side for ingress and egress, thus endeavouring 

 to secure a continuance of the shelter previously supplied by the long grass.' Two or three 

 instances are recorded of the Sky-Lark moving its eggs under the fear of impending danger; 

 and Mr. Jesse, in the fourth edition of his ' Gleanings,' adds the following communication made 

 to him by a clergyman in Sussex, who, during a previous harvest, ' was riding gently towards 

 Dell Quay, in Chichester Harbour, with two friends, where, having passed the toll-bar, the road 

 is of good elevation, and separated by a short quickset-hedge on each side from the fields, over 

 which there is a commanding view. When in this situation, their attention was attracted by a 

 shrieking cry ; and they discovered a pair of Sky-Larks rising out of the stubble, and crossing the 

 road before them at a slow rate, one of them having a young bird in its claws, which was dropped 

 in the opposite field at a height of about thirty feet from the ground, and killed by the fall. On 

 taking it up, it appeared to have been hatched about eight or nine days. The affectionate parent was 

 endeavouring to convey its young one to a place of safety ; but its strength failed in the attempt.' " 



Eegarding the migration of the Sky-Lark, the following note is given by Thompson : — " In 

 the 'Annual Register,' under the date of January 10, 1814, it is stated that 'the Hillsborough 

 packet, on the passage from Portpatrick to Donaghadee, was literally covered, on the rigging and 

 deck, by a flock of Larks." Messrs. Gray and Anderson also state, in their ' Birds of Ayrshire,' 

 " some winters ago immense flocks of Larks appeared during hard weather in some fields close to 

 the town of Girvan. On rising from the ground, the cloud of birds appeared so dense as to 

 obscure objects in the line of their flight. Large numbers were killed on the telegraph-wires ; 

 and after the flocks had passed it was found that many buds had been mutilated, their wings being 

 torn off by the wires." Mr. Stevenson, in his ' Birds of Norfolk,' likewise writes as follows : — " Our 

 home-bred birds also perform, during the winter months, a kind of partial migration, shifting 

 their ground repeatedly, according to the state of the weather. Not unfrequently after severe 



