502 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



the Tits in its softer and more bulky plumage and tail. Its flight is 

 undulating and rapid ; its long tail and body muffled up to the chin 

 in dense plumage giving the observer the idea of an arrow flying 

 through the air. 



The Tits abound throughout Europe, and are also found in 

 America ; some of them remaining all the year with us, although 

 they are all birds of passage. 



The Larks (Aiaudince) complete the Conirostral Passerinae. They 

 are distinguished by the great muscularity of the gizzard, and their 

 elongated and slightly-curved claws, which are sometimes longer 

 than the toe itself, strong indications of ground habits ; in short, 

 they pass their lives on the surface of great grassy plains, or soaring 

 in the air. This family renders eminent service to agriculturists by 

 the enormous quantity of worms, caterpillars, and grasshoppers it 

 devours. 



The Lark builds its nest in a furrow, or between two clods of 

 earth, without skill, but with sufficient intelligence to know that 

 it is necessary it should be concealed. It lays four or five eggs, 

 spotted or freckled ; in favourable seasons three sets of eggs in the 

 year are sometimes hatched. The young birds break the shell after 

 fifteen days' incubation, and are in a condition to leave their cradle 

 at the end of fifteen more ; but the mother still continues her surveil- 

 lance, 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 fledged 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 soaring wings 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 heard. The 

 song is significant ; it is the hymn of good fellowship- — a call to all 

 the dwellers of the plain. 



The season of incubation over, Larks assemble in numerous 

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

 ful, they soon get plump and fat. In countries like France this is 

 the signal for their destruction, for persons assemble from all quarters 

 to make a raid on these valuable innocents, using every means to 

 accomplish their work of death ; and unless the legislature interferes 

 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 ruse based upon the 



