THE SKYLARK. 



slight hollow scratched out by the bird 

 under tufts of grass, ling, heath, in corn, 

 and amongst the sun-baked clods of 

 fallow fields. It is made of grass root- 

 lets and horsehair — frequently nothing 

 but the first-named, used sparmgly with 

 the slenderest blades formnig the inner 

 lining. I have found larks' eggs from 

 Aprif until the end of July. They number 

 four or five, of a du'ty white ground 

 colour, occasionally tinged with olive- 

 green, thickly speckled and spotted \\-ith 

 olive-brown and underlying markings of 

 brownish-grey. 



The sprightly song of the Skjdark is 

 probably better known and remembered 

 b}^ most people than even the appearance 

 of the familiar little brown bird itself. 

 Poets of all ages have praised it in their 

 verse, but nobody has ever excelled 

 Shakespeare's golden line : 



" Hark ! hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings." 



In a moderate breeze the Lavrock 

 rises almost perpendicularh^, but during 

 a calm in circles, and with rapidly beating 

 wings pours out his loud, joyous song 

 until he sometimes reaches an altitude 

 of a thousand feet or more. Some people 

 say that the bird soars until it becomes 



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