530 



PASSERINES. 



are in a condition to leave their cradle at the end of fifteen 

 more ; but the mother still continues her surveillance, guides 

 their steps, satisfies their wants, and continually hovers near 

 them until the demands of another brood take her away, when 

 they are abandoned to themselves, being now so fully fiedged as 

 no longer to require maternal care. 



The Lark is the living emblem of happy, peaceful labour, the 

 songster of the cultivated earth. In the early dawn the male 

 bird rises aloft, and with soarino" wing- fills the air with his 

 joyous notes, and calls the husbandman to his labour. Higher and 

 higher he mounts, until he is lost to sight ; but his voice is still 



Fig. 239.— The Crested Lark [Alaiida cristata, Linn.). 



heard. The song is sigDificant ; it is the hymn of good fellowship 

 • — a call to all the dwellers of the plain. 



The season of incubation over, the Larks assemble in numerous 

 flocks, having now only their food to think of; and that being 

 plentiful, they soon get plump and fat. In countries like France 

 this is the signal for their destruction, foi- persons assemble 

 from all quarters to make a razzia on these valuable innocents, 

 using every means to accomplish their work of death ; and unless 

 the legislature interfere in their behalf by passing laws for 

 their preservation, it will finish probably by exterminating the 

 race. 



Taking Larks by means of a mirror is a 7'u.9e based upon the 

 natural curiosity of this species, which leads it irresistibly tofl'ards 

 any reflected light. The slaughterer places a glass, or any 



