ALAUDA. 
sis, or sky-lark, the specific characters of 
which are, that the two outermost quills of 
its tail are white lengthwise externally, and 
the intermediate ones are ferruginous on the 
inside : the length is about seven inches. 
The males ot this species are somewhat 
browner than the females; they have a 
black collar, and more white on the tail ; 
their size is larger, and their aspect bolder ; 
and they exclusively possess the faculty of 
singing. When the female is impregnated, 
she forms her nest between two clods of 
earth, and lines it with herbs and dry roots, 
being no less attentive to the concealment 
than to the structure of it. It sometimes 
builds its nest among corn and in high grass. 
Each female lays four or five eggs, which 
are greyish, with brown spots ; and the pe- 
riod of her incubation is about 15 days. The 
young may be taken out of the nest when 
they are a fortnight old, and they are so 
hardy, that they may be easily brought up. 
The parentis very tender of her young; and 
though she does not always cover them with 
her wings, she directs their motions, supplies 
their wants, and guards them from danger. 
The common food of the young sky-larks is 
worms, caterpillars, ants-eggs, and even 
grasshoppers; and in maturity, they live 
chiefly on seeds, herbage, and all vegetable 
substances. Those birds, it is said, that are 
destined for singing, should be caught in 
October or November; the males should, 
as much as possible, be selected : and when 
they are untractable they should be pinioned, 
lest they injure themselves by their violence 
against the roof of the cage. As they can- 
not cling by the toes, it is needless to place 
bars across their cage ; but they should have 
clean sand at the bottom of it, that they may 
welter in it and be relieved from the vermin 
which torment them. In Flanders, the 
young ones are fed with moistened poppy- 
seeds and soaked crumbs of bread ; and 
when they begin to sing, with sheep’s and 
calves’ hearts, hashed with hard eggs ; to 
which are added, wheat, spilt-oats, millet, 
linseed, and the seeds of poppy and hemp, 
steeped in milk. Their capacity of learn- 
ing to sing is well known ; and So apt are 
some cock larks, that, after hearing a tune 
whistled with the pipe, they have caught the 
whole, and repeat it more agreeably than 
any linnet or canary bird. In summer the 
larks seek the highest and driest situations ; 
but in winter they descend to the plains, 
and assemble in numerous flocks. In the 
former season they are very lean, and in the 
latter very fat, as they are always on the 
ground, and constantly feeding. In mount- 
ing the air, they ascend almost perpendicu- 
larly, by successive springs, and hover at a 
great height ; but in descending, they make 
an oblique sweep, unless they are pursued 
by a ravenous bird, or attracted by a mate, 
in either of which cases they fall like a stone 
These small birds, at the height to which 
they soar, are liable to be wafted by the 
wind ; and they have been observed at sea, 
clinging to the masts and cordage ot ships. 
Sir Hans Sloane observed some of them 40 
miles from the coast, and Count, Marsigli met 
with them on the Mediterranean. It is 
conjectured, that those which are found in 
America have been driven thither by the 
wind. Some have supposed, that they are 
birds of passage, at least in the more southern 
and milder climates of Europe ; but they 
are occasionally concealed under some 
rock or sheltered cave. The lark is found 
in all the inhabited parts of both continents, 
as far as the Cape of Good Hope ; this bird, 
and the wood-lark, are the only birds which 
sing whilst they fly. The higher "it soars, 
the more it strains its voice, and lowers it 
till it quite dies away in descending. When 
it ascends beyond our sight, its music is dis- 
tinctly heard ; and its song, which is full of 
swells and falls, and thus delightful for its 
variety, commences before the earliest 
dawn. In a state of freedom, the lark be- 
gins its song early in the spring, which is its 
season of love and pairing, and continues to 
warble during the whole of the summer. 
The Honorable Dailies Barrington reckons 
this among the best of the singing larks: 
and as it copies the warble of every other 
bird, he terms it a mocking bird. These 
birds, which are esteemed a delicacy for the 
table, though Linnaeus thinks the food im- 
proper for gravelly complaints, are taken 
with us in the greatest numbers, in the 
neighbourhood of Dunstable. The season 
begins about the 14th of September, and 
ends the 25th of February ; and during this 
time, about 4000 dozen are caught for sup- 
plying the London markets. Those caught 
in the day, are taken in clap-nets, till the 
14th of November. But when the weather 
becomes gloomy, and also in the night, the 
larker makes use of a trammel-net, 27 or 28 
feet long, and five broad, which is put on 
two poles 18 feet long, and carried by men 
under each arm, who pass over the fields, 
and quarter the grounds as a setting dog. 
When they see or feel a lark strike the net N 
they drop it down, and thus the birds are 
taken. The darkest nights are the most 
proper for their sport ; and the net will not 
only take larks, hut all other birds that roost 
