SKYLARK.

THE skylark is one of the best known of our native species of birds, being universally appreciated for the almost unrivalled excellence of its song. What we lose in this country in the beauty of birds' plumage, we gain in the sweetness of their notes, for no country is so favoured in this respect as ours.

"The length of this species is seven inches; bill, dusky; the base of the upper mandible, yellowish; the feathers on the top of the head are dusky, bordered with rufous brown; they are rather long, and erectable in form of a short crest; the hind part is plain, inclining to ash-colour; on the upper parts of the body the feathers are reddish brown, darker in their middle, their edges pale; the under parts are dull buff-colour, darkest on the neck and breast, which parts are streaked with dusky; quills, brown, lighter on the outer webs and tips; the tail is dusky brown, the two middle feathers darkest, with light rufous margins; the outer feather is white on the outer web and tip of the inner; the second feather white on the outer web only; the third is inclining to white on the margin of the outer web; legs, dusky in old birds, but lighter in the young; claws, dusky, the hind one very large and straight.

The eggs are generally four in number, rather larger than those of a titlark, weighing about fifty grains, of a dull white, blotted and spotted with brown. It begins to breed in May, and will lay as late as September, if the first nests are destroyed."

Two or three instances are recorded of the skylark

moving its eggs under the fear of impending danger; and Mr. Jesse, in the fourth edition of his "Gleanings," adds the following communication made to him by a clergyman in Sussex, who, during a previous harvest "was riding gently towards Dell Quay in Chichester Harbour, with two friends; when having passed the toll-bar, the road is of good elevation, and separated by a short quickset edge on each side from the fields, over which there was a commanding view. When in this situation, their attention was attracted by a shrieking cry, and they discovered a pair of skylarks rising out of the stubble; and crossing the road before them at a slow rate, one of them having a small bird in its claws, which was dropped in the opposite field at a height of about thirty feet from the ground, and killed by the fall. On taking it up it appeared to have been hatched about eight or nine days. The affectionate parent was endeavouring ot convey its young one to a place of safety, but its strength failed in the attempt."