266 LARK. 



The Skylark is very common in England, especially in the more 

 open, and cultivated situations, abounding in corn : rarely found at 

 any great distance from arable land : the nest made on the ground, 

 in the grass, or among corn, composed of dry stalks and fibres, lined 

 with fine dry grass ; the eggs generally four, dirty white, blotched 

 and spotted with brown, and each weighing above fifty grains ; 

 generally breeds in May, but will lay again, if the first nest is 

 destroyed, even as late as September ; found on most parts of the 

 Old Continent, as we hear of it in Norway, Sweden, Germany, 

 France, Italy, and Greece;* also as far as the Cape of Good Hopef 

 at least ; very common in Russia and Siberia, likewise in Kamts- 

 chatka. In some parts of Germany much more plentiful than in 

 England. X Whether it may inhabit America is uncertain, though 

 Sloane mentions having met with one some leagues out at sea. 



A.— Alauda Candida, Bris. iii. 339. 1. 19. 1. Id. Svo. i. 405. Frisch, 1. 16. Klein, 



Av. p. 72. 4. Ind. Orn. ii. 491. (3. 

 Alouette blanche, Buf. v. 20. 

 White Lark, Gen. Syn. iv. 369. A. 



This is pure white, and is often found in the colder climates in 

 this dress; but in those I have seen, there has been a mixture of other 



* Briinnich.—Faun. suec. — Frisch — Buffon — Olina — Belon Observ. 



f Kolben. One sent home by Mr. Mason, was a trifle smaller. Hasselqwst says, it is 

 common on the shores of the Nile, and adjacent Islands. — It. Palcest. 



% Four thousand dozen annually taken in the neighbourhood of Dunstable, between Sep- 

 tember and February, and many are dressed at the Inns thereabouts, after a particular mode, 

 and sought after by the lovers of delicacies, but the greater part are sent to London. This is 

 in no proportion to what are often caught in various parts of Germany, where they are subject 

 to an excise, which according to Keysler, produces 6000 dollars (a) yearly to Leipsic ; and 

 these Larks are famous throughout that country, having a most delicate flavour. But it is not 

 only Leipsic that furnishes such numbers, for the country about Naumburg, Merseburg, 

 Halle, and other parts, do the same. The duty at Leipsic is a Grosch (about 2|d. sterling) 

 for every sixty birds, and produces frequently 12,000 crowns. This is not to be wondered 

 at, as the fields thereabouts are literally covered with them, from Michaelmas to the middle 



of November. 



(a) About j£900 sterliDg. 



