Notices of New Books. 8499 



great activity and picking up insects, while the parent birds perform 

 short aerial journeys above and around them, frequently alighting 

 and transferring from their own mouths to those of their offspring, 

 each in its turn, the insect they have just captured. They are at 

 all times sociably disposed, being seen sometimes in small parties, 

 and sometimes in large flocks. It has been noticed that when one 

 of a party has been wounded by a discharge from a gun, another 

 has flown down as if to aid it or sympathize with it. Advantage is 

 taken of this habit by bird-catchers in France. It is the custom to 

 tie wagtails by their feet to the clap-nets, and make them struggle 

 violently and utter cries of pain when a flight of the same kind of birds 

 is seen approaching; these stop their flight, and alighting are caught 

 in large numbers for the spit, their flesh, it is said, being very delicate. 

 They share too with swallows the praise of being among the first to 

 announce to other birds the approach of a hawk, and join with them 

 in mobbing and driving it away." — (P. 163). 



" The Skylark. — Early in spring the flocks break up, when the birds 

 pair, and for three or four months, every day and all day long, when 

 the weather is fine (for the lark dislikes rain and high winds), its song 

 may be heard throughout the breadth of the land. Rising as it were 

 from a sudden impulse from its nest or lowly retreat it bursts forth 

 while as yet a few feet from the ground into exuberant song, and with 

 its head turned towards the breeze, now ascending perpendicularly, 

 and now veering to the right or left, but not describing circles, it pours 

 forth an unbroken chain of melody until it has reached an elevation 

 computed to be, at the most, about a thousand feet. To an observer 

 on earth it has dwindled to the size of a mere speck ; as far as my 

 experience goes it never rises so high as to defy j;he search of a keen 

 eye. Having reached its highest elevation its ambition is satisfied 

 without making any permanent stay, and it begins to descend, not with 

 a uniform downward motion, but by a series of droppings with intervals 

 of simple hovering, during which it seems to be resting on its wings. 

 Finally, as it draws near the earth, it ceases its song and descends 

 more rapidly, but before it touches the ground it recovers itself, sweeps 

 away with almost horizontal flight for a short distance and disappears 

 in the herbage. The time consumed in this evolution is at the most 

 from fifteen to twenty minutes, more frequently less ; nor have I ever 

 observed it partially descend and soar upwards again. A writer in the 

 ' Magazine of Natural History ' maintains that those acquainted with 

 the song of the skylark can tell, without looking at them, whether the 



