The Skylark.
(Alauda arvensis.)
It can raise a tuft on its head at will. A long, slightly hooked claw is on the back toe. The nest is placed on the ground, more rarely among corn or meadow grass, but rather on fallow ground or clover field, among low thick growth; it assimilates so closely with its surroundings that it is difficult to discover. It usually contains five eggs, which, being of a dingy, grey-green speckled with a darker colour, also somewhat resemble the colour of the earth.
This Lark occurs most numerously in the northern regions, and as regards its habits is one of the best known and most popular of birds. It arrives in Hungary early in the spring, settles down, and does not allow any other bird to approach it, pecking them away if possible. Its little territory often occupies only a hundred paces. The different territories are contiguous, and disputes between the neighbours are perpetually going on. The combatants may constantly be seen, darting here and there with lightning speed, flying near the ground, in pursuit of one another. During the pairing and brooding-time the male bird sings unweariedly, flinging his song into the air. He rises towards the sky, with vibrating wings, higher and higher, dropping his ever-changing trilling notes,—often rising to such a height that he disappears from sight and the song dies away. Then suddenly he reappears, becomes silent, and drops like a stone to earth.
In his poem “In Winter,” Johann Arány says of the Lark:—
“Like the poor poet,
Who in the sun’s bright rays spreads out his wing
And bears towards heaven his song: he turns and falls,
And he is silent.”
The Lark lives partly on seeds, but its chief food is gathered from the insect world. It is almost universally considered by epicures a great delicacy, and is snared by thousands. Fortunately it exists in great numbers, but its snaring is to be deprecated.
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In England larks have been very largely eaten, but happily the practice is now most strongly opposed by thoughtful people. If the consumption of Larks in our country went on as it was doing a few years ago the species would soon be extinct. Yet this singer—whom poets have delighted to honour and one—possibly because of its alert ways and its sentinel-like attitude—which Julius Cæsar chose as an emblem for one of his famous legions,—devours wireworms, grubs and various larvæ when these lie hidden in the short winter pastures, and just at the stage when the latter are most greedy of nourishment, so that the grass would suffer incredibly but for the bird’s work. A recent authority stated that it was to be deplored that not a tenth part of the Skylarks that formerly frequented the Midland pastures were there now. Unfortunately this bird is a favourite among those who are given to the caging of singing birds.
This bird is bigger and more slender than the Sparrow, and the colouring generally of the upper parts is a warm yellowish-brown. It is distinguished from its congener, the Woodlark, by its tail feathers. The two outermost feathers are white, growing darker only about the shaft. The outer web of the second feather is white. The tail feathers have dark-brown centres and tawny edges.