SONG-BIRDS 181 



oily fir-seeds supply much heat. The bill in the young birds is straight, 

 and only assumes the crossed shape later in life. It is a favourite cage 

 bird, partly on account of its accomplishments as a climber, partly on 

 account of its richly-coloured plumage. (Males several years old are 

 carmine-red or yellow ; females and young are grey or yellow.) 



Family 2 : Larks (Alaudictae). 



The Skylark (Alauda arvensis). 



(Length 7 inches.) 



The lark is a bird of the fields. In early spring and after the 

 harvest, when there is no cover to hide it from its numerous enemies 

 (see hare), its earth-coloured plumage, which renders the bird indis- 

 tinguishable at a few paces' distance, furnishes it with an excellent 

 means of protection. It builds its neat-looking nest out of roots and all 

 sorts of grass-blades and stalks in a shallow depression of the ground 

 between potato-stems or the like, where it is not easily discoverable. 

 The eggs are earth-coloured, with green and white spots, and scarcely 

 distinguishable from their surroundings. In spite of these means of 

 protection, its enemies nevertheless manage to discover both eggs and 

 young, and but for its remarkable reproductive powers (it lays annually 

 two or three clutches of from five to six eggs each), the jubilant song of 

 the lark would soon for ever cease to resound upon our meadows. (Com- 

 pare with hare.) As with all song-birds, the song of the male is designed 

 for the gratification of the female. Poets have glorified the lark, pouring 

 forth its joyous strain, as, in spiral lines, it ascends into the heights 

 above. As larks breed until the beginning of autumn, their jubilant 

 songs do not cease until scarcity of food urges their departure. The 

 bird's food consists of anything which the fields can supply : the tender 

 sprouts of the young crops, all sorts of small insects, grains of corn and 

 other seeds. Being omnivorous in its diet, the bill of the lark is not as 

 strong as in the true grain-eating birds, but stronger than in purely 

 insectivorous species (nightingale). Having to seek its food upon the 

 ground, the lark is the best runner among the song-birds (the claw of the 

 hind toe being of unusual length — lark-spur). Since its food (the 

 young crops) is ready as soon as the sun has removed the white winter 

 sheet from the fields, the lark returns to us early, with the melting of the 

 snow. In the autumn the birds assemble in large flocks, and, ascending 

 to great heights, take their departure. But in the South the birdcatcher 

 has his snares spread ready for their destruction. The tuneful songsters 

 are now doomed to tickle the palate of the epicure, under the name of 



