232 
ALAUDIM. 
the 22nd, 1840. " At half-past seven o'clock this evening, when 
on the highest part of the old road from Belfast to Crumlin, perhaps 
850 feet above the sea, larks were busily engaged singing on every 
side, at the same time that snipes ( Scolopax Gallinago ) were bleat- 
ing, and giving utterance to their other calls. The mingling of 
the notes of the two species, so very dissimilar, had a singular but 
most pleasing effect.” The skylark is generally noticed by authors 
as singing only when on wing; yet it not very unfrequently 
pours forth its song from the ground, and when perched on furze 
or whins, &c. Mr. Poole remarks, that the skylark occasionally 
mounts up to sing during rain, but does not remain long, merely 
ascending and quickly descending again : nests are noted by him 
as containing young birds in the middle of April, and which were 
fledged by the 1st of May. An observant friend has on different 
occasions known several circular holes to be made by pairs of 
these birds, before fixing upon one for their nest. 
In very cold winters, our indigenous larks congregate in large 
flocks, which remain with us unless the weather become extraor- 
dinarily severe, when they move more or less southward. Even 
when the winter is mild in the north of Ireland, these birds gene- 
rally migrate hither from Scotland, in small or moderate flocks, and 
have repeatedly been seen crossing the Channel by my friend Capt. 
Eayrer, B.N., during the several years that he commanded the 
mail steam-packet, which plied between Portpatrick and Donagha- 
dee.* Although the autumn of the year 1832 had been very 
fine and mild, I saw so early as the 17 th of October, a very large 
flock of larks, which had doubtless migrated to this country. 
In the winter of 1837-38, larks remained in flocks until a late 
period — on the 24th of March I remarked not less than sixty 
congregated. 
The skylark occasionally exhibits variety in its plumage, though 
less frequently than some others of our small birds. The collec- 
* In the “Annual Register” under date of January the 1 Qth, 1814, it is stated, 
that “ The Hillsborough Packet, on the passage from Portpatrick to Donaghadee, 
was literally covered, on the rigging and deck, by a flock of larks : they had taken 
their departure from some place at or near Portpatrick, and in order to have a rest 
by the way, swarmed about the packet. So soon as they got near shore, they made a 
rapid flight for the land.” 
