473 SKY LARK. Class II. 



the fourteenth of September, and ends the twenty- 

 fifth of February ; and during that time, about 

 4000 dozen are taken, which supply the markets 

 of the metropolis. Those caught in the day are 

 taken in clap-nets of fifteen yards in length, and 

 two and a half in breadth, and are enticed 

 within their reach by means of bits of looking- 

 glass, fixed in a piece of wood, and placed in 

 the middle of the nets, which are put in a quick 

 whirling motion, by a string the larker com- 

 mands; he also makes use of a decoy lark. 

 These nets are used only till the fourteenth of 

 November, for the larks will not dare, or frolick 

 in the air except in fine sunny weather, and of 

 course cannot be inveigled into the snare. When 

 the weather grows gloomy, the larker changes 

 his engine, and makes use of a trammel net 

 twenty-seven or twenty-eight feet long, and five 

 broad, which is put on two poles eighteen feet 

 long, and carried by men under each arm, who 

 pass over the fields and quarter the ground as a 

 setting dog ; when they hear or feel a lark hit 

 the net, they drop it down, and so the birds are 

 taken. 



