SCHOOL IN THE OPEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 20

SCHOOL IN THE OPEN.

1 STUDIES IN THE GREAT OUT-OF-DOORS, j I (By J. J. S. Cornes, 8.A., B.Sc.) S The “Star *' has arranged with Mr J. J. S. Comes, 8.A., B.Sc, to Ss write & series of Illustrated articles which will give teachers and an others a fuller appreciation of the Great Out-of-doors, They will gfj deal with various aspects of plant and animal life, as well as with fis inanimate nature. Questions and material for identification will ||S be welcomed.

THE SKYLARK. CXLY. _ In spring, and autumn, too, when the ( anterburv grass lands are transfigured by gorse -blossom, they are enlivened by the song of skylarks. The songsters begin as soon as the sun warms the air a little, and continue until dusk. In summer they step singing only for two or three hours in the middle of the night. Singing la.te end early, by night as well as by day, they go all through the year. What is most impressive about the song is its vigour and yet apparent ease. As Shelley suggests in his poem, we have here the outpouring of a full heart, “ a flood cf rapture,” “ a rain of melody.” The lark, with not merely so much to say as a blackbird or a thrush, says it over and over again untiringly; with variations, perhaps, yet within small compass. John Burroughs, a noted observer of its ways, says that

kinds of seeds, the tender leaves of small plants, and the delicate shoots of grass and corn. Vet if it levies a slight tax on seedling turnips, it outweighs much damage by its destruction of weeds and harmful insects. Moreover, it can never become a serious pest like the sparrow, because it is not so gregarious, so prolific ,nor so pugnacious. In October the lark makes a simple nest in a deppression on the ground, the male collecting the grass-stem materials, the female fashioning them. She does most of the brooding of the four or five dark-brown spotted eggs. After a fortnight the young hatch out —blind and sparsely clothed .with j down. They are fed by both parents I for some weeks on insects and small j earthworms. There are two broods at 1 least in the season. The nest is often j well hidden in the grass, but often jin places that to us. seem stupid, such :as on little mounds by grass-tussock, jor oil the fairway or the edge of “the 1 rough” of golf-courses. The female is

the song is like the grass -where the bird makes its home. “ abounding, multitudinous, the notes nearly all alike and in the same key, showering down as thickly and as fast as drops in a summer shower.” The motfi is simple, but full of ecstasy—and vehemence, too; “there is madness about thee” (Wordsworth). The song, within its narrow limits, is passionate, and to relieve the monotony snatches of song from other birds are woven in by imitation. John Burroughs, again, tells /how an American, with Shelley’s poem in his hand, went hunting about in English fields and could not find one skylark. Of course, poems are not written as aids to “ telling the birds from the flowers,’' but we might reasonably expect to find a real skylark in a poem addressed to the skylark. For truthfulness compare Meredith's poem:— “lie rises and begins to round, lie drops the silver chain of sound Of many links without a break. In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake. All intervolved and spreading wide Like water-ripples down a tide Where ripple ripple overcurls And eddy into eddy whirls; A fleet of hurried notes that run So fleet they scarce are more than The song is rendered usually in midair. the bird soaring perhaps a thousand feet up “at heaven’s gate,” and lost to view ; “ Like a star of heaven In the broad daylight Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight." ' —Shelley, From such heights the harsher, more guttural notes of the song are sifted out by distance, and only the sweetest trebles descend, bathing the hearer s ears as if the warm sunshine were become audible. When it comes to interpreting the song as a scientific fact, we must again join issue with the poets—of course, a | very wooden thing to do. Such lines . “ Now at heaven’s gate she claps her wings, ~ The morn not waking till she sings, would suggest that it is the females mostlv which sing. The reverse is true The skvAarks song is the audible as : pec.t of "love,” and is wrapped up with courtship, though possibly its basis is broadening,, so that the song expresses vigour, good spirits, .and the joy of life in the female also. Rival males sing even as they fight, and even in the rain, or on the ground, they seem “blithesome and cumberless. ’ While half the courtship is song, the other half is a sort of play. The male shows off the outermost white leathers of his tail: he hovers on quivering wings a few feet . above his desired mate: there are aerial evolutions which do both parties great credit. The buffbrown colour is alike in both sexes, and well-suited for concealment against the ground. Like many another "blithe spirit and “unbodied joy. 7 our skylark has a wholesome appetite, and its widespread success in life depends partly on the length of its menu, which includes vegetable as well as animal

said to avoid alighting on or flying off the nest, by running a short way in a twisting path through the grass—but if you disturb her suddenly or put her xi]) with a lantern at night, she certainly flies off direct. Mr Pycroft, ornithologist of the British Museum, calls attention to the three black spots on the bright yellow tongue of the young birds. These, like those on the red palate of young hedgesparrows,. are probably “guiding marks,” enabling the parents to put food into the baby mouths without fumbling and loss of time—for fussing about the nest with enemies about is dangerous. The lark is a quick runner on the ground, but the meaning of the very long claw or spur of the backwardturned big toe is uncertain, for the bird does not perch much. When we come suddenly upon a lark we see it crouch, in preparation for a leap into

the air. The bird begins to sing when ai few feet from the ground, and continues as it rises: ‘‘The blue deep thou wingest. And singing still dost spar,.and soaring - ever singest/' > And. so until the bifd is just a speck ip the sky -then after drifting it begins the, descent, a series of drops with outspread wing-s, interspaced with brief hoverings, the song continuing. When a few feet off the ground the Songster suddenly, stops; there is. < a hush its he drops to earth.. There are many birds, that decrease in number as agriculture spreads, but it is otherwise with the lark. It is a lover of open spaces, nesting safely in the growing crops. It has a varied bill of fare food is assured all the year round. It is inconspicuous. It has quite two broods a season. Of course, there is on the other hand a stem sifting by man and weather, by weasels, cats, rats and hawks: but the lark works on a large margin of racial safety and holds its own. Introduced into New Zealand for sentimental reasons mostly, it is everywhere successful and a universal favourite. (To be Continued next Saturday).

”mm“ ~b_..‘...- ~ . food. It eats insevts. it is true, including imurious ones; but also many