THE SKYLARK 119 



Some one or other of its companions. In winter, it seems to act 

 as a guide to the smaller land birds, who, finding their supply of 

 food diminished or altogether cut off by the frost, are attracted 

 by its movements, and join it in searching for insects among the 

 unfrozen 



'ridge of all things vile,' 



left on the shore by the receding tide. Montagu says, that it has 

 never been observed to be gregarious ; his editor, however, Rennie, 

 states that he has noticed it to be, if not quite gregarious, at least 

 very nearly so, on the wild rocky shores of Normandy ; and, from 

 my own acquaintance with its habits in Devon and Cornwall, I 

 am inclined to agree with the latter. If not gregarious, it is at 

 least sociable, and that too at seasons when the flocks could hardly 

 have been family gatherings only. The same remark holds good 

 of the Meadow Pipit. A migration southwards takes place in 

 October along our east coast. 



FAMILY ALAUDID^ 



THE SKYLARK 



ALAUDA ARVENSIS 



Upper parts reddish brown, the centre of each feather dark brown ; a faint 

 whitish streak above the eyes ; throat white ; neck and breast whitish, 

 tinged with yellow and red, and streaked with dark brown ; tail moderate. 

 Length seven inches and a quarter. Eggs greyish, thickly speckled with 

 dark grey and brown. 



The Skylark, a bird whose flight and song are better known perhaps 

 than those of any other bird, needs but a simple biography. The 

 favourite bird of the poets, its story might be told in extracts compiled 

 from various authors whose muse has led them to sing of Nature. 

 Much, however, that has been written is but an amplification of 

 the golden line, ' Hark, the Lark at Heaven's gate sings ! ' and not 

 a little is an exaggerated statement of the height to which it ascends, 

 and the time which it remains suspended in mid-air. But the 

 Skylark needs no panegyrists, so, with all due deference to those 

 who have struck the lyre in its honour, I wUl endeavour to describe 

 its habits and haunts in humble prose. 



The Skylark is a generally-diffused bird, adapted by the con- 

 formation of its claws for perching on the ground, and by its length 

 and power of wing for soaring high in the air. Accordingly, its 

 food consists of small insects and seeds, which it collects among the 

 herbage of stubble-fields, meadows and downs, or in newly-ploughed 



