0720 



Birds. 



frequent, on the tablet-stones of which the merry lark, regardless of 

 the crumbling remains entombed beneath him, stretches his little 

 throat and quivers his wings as he carols to his mate ; then, in the 

 ecstasy of his joy, up he rises, and, gradually soaring higher and 

 higher, soon becomes lost to view, though the cheerful cadence of his 

 notes still strikes the ear of the delighted listener. The notes are rich 

 and full, and sound delightful in the open air, especially when heard 

 in the comparative solitude of this island ; but in a house they soon 

 become overwhelming. Leave the bird, however, where Nature 

 intended it to be, and its song will continue to enchant as long as 

 man has soul to enjoy. 



I was only able to find one nest, on which the parent sat so close 

 that I nearly trod on her before she bustled out and fluttered down 

 the hill. Ensconced among the grass and almost concealed by it, 

 lay the nest on the ground. It was placed in no hole scraped for the 

 purpose, as the skylark places her nest, but knit among the roots of 

 the grass. The outside was composed of roots and coarse grasses ; 

 the inside was somewhat shallow, and lined with finer stems of grass. 

 In it were deposited three eggs, varying but slightly in size, shape 

 and colour ; one that I brought away with me measures in width 

 7-tenths, and in length 8j-tenths ; it is of a pale brownish hue, with 

 numerous spots and blotches of umber-brown, smaller and scarcer at 

 the lesser end, but disposed in almost a mass at the larger. The 

 young are constantly exhibited for sale in the streets during the 

 breeding season, and are reared by the Chinamen on a creamy sub- 

 stance called bean-cake, until they are able to feed themselves. In 

 their markings they a good deal resemble the young of the skylarks. 



The nestling has the inside of the mouth of an orange-chrome, which 

 as the bird grows to full size pales into flesh-colour, with light yellow 

 on the rim of the beak ; the irides are umber. The feathers on the 

 upper parts are smaller and rounder than in the adult, fringed with 

 light ochreous yellow. The margins of the wings and tail are not so 

 rich. The under parts yellowish white, and the pectoral band more 

 ochreous yellow, with indistinct spots of blackish brown. Feet pale 

 flesh-colour. 



In autumn, when the season of incubation has come to a close, 

 they herd together in flocks, though never in any great numbers, and 

 may be seen all the winter through, in companies of twenty or thirty, 

 in the fresh-ploughed fields or stubble, on which it is very difficult, 

 nay almost impossible, to see them, from their being so much the 

 colour of the ground. I have often walked quietly up to a spot where 



