SKy-LARK. 109 



SKY-LAEK. 

 Alauda arvensis. 



This, by pre-eminenoe the Lark, is generally diffused over 

 the open country, but avoids the woods. It is a resident, but, 

 except in the breeding season, very much on the move, and 

 often gathers in enormous flocks, especially in hard winter, 

 when it migrates from place to place, according to the 

 weather. Its line of migration is most frequently from East 

 to West. Immense multitudes cross the sea, and immbers 

 are frequently found to strike the lanterns of the lighthouses. 

 I have often seen them in the neighbourhood of the coast 

 passing over, and flying very swiftly for hours together. 



The delightful song has been the theme of the poets of all 

 ages, and is far more cheerful from the celestial height, than 

 that of the equally celebrated Nightingale from its legendary 

 thorn. It feeds on seeds of weeds and the corn which it finds 

 scattered after harvest, as well as on insects, and in hard 

 weather often frequents the sheep-folds, probably finding 

 larvae among the decaying roots of the turnips. It is found 

 still more abundantly on the open stubbles, where it roosts, 

 when many hundreds, I may say thousands, are taken in 

 nets, and sold to the poulterers. Enormous numbers are 

 annually taken by the call-bird and clap-net, besides those 

 that are shot as they hover — an easy mark for the gun — -over 

 an instrument of wood, into which are fixed bits of looking- 

 glass, and, by a string properly adjusted, made to spin round 

 rapidly, this device proving a never-failing and fatal attrac- 

 tion to the birds. 



The nest is generally placed on the ground in an open 

 meadow, or corn-field, in any slight depression, and very 

 commonly in a round hole in the turf, formed by the bird 

 itself, and is composed of grass, and lined with fine roots 



