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.
Fig. 238.—The Crested Tit (Parus cristatus, Selborne).
The Larks (Alaudinæ) complete the Conirostral Passerinæ. They are distinguished by the great muscularity of their gizzard, and their elongated and slightly-curved claws, which are sometimes longer than the toe itself, indicative of a ground-bird; in short, they pass their lives on the ground, in the bosom 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 daily devours.
The Lark builds its nest in a furrow, or between two clods of earth, without much skill it is true, but with sufficient intelligence to know that it is necessary it should be concealed. Here 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 surveillance, 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.
Fig. 239.—The Crested Lark (Alauda cristata, Linn.).
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 wing 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, the Larks assemble in numerous flocks, having now only their food to think of; and that being plentiful, 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 razzia on these valuable innocents, using every means to accomplish their work of death; and unless the legislature interfere 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 natural curiosity of this species, which leads it irresistibly towards any reflected light. The slaughterer places a glass, or any object that will reflect the sun's rays, in a field, concealing himself in its neighbourhood. The Larks, attracted by the light, come within reach of his blows, and fall around the mirror, undismayed by the fate of their companions.