This is no vulgar little city arab, picking about in untidy stables, in the refuse on the streets, and among the droppings of horses. Does not its Latin name rather proclaim it one of the aristocrats of bird life. Its dress may be dull-coloured, but its form and its motions are not inelegant, despite its familiar name of “Shufflewings” and “Smokie,” in deference to its characteristic motion and its colouring. Head and nape are a bluish-grey, streaked with brown, back and wings are a reddish-brown, streaked blackish; the lower wing-coverts are tipped with clayish colour, in bar-fashion, underparts a dull white; the sides are marked with dark streaks on a pale reddish-brown ground; the bill brown, the base being of a lighter shade; the legs and feet are yellow brown. Length 5.5 inches. The slate-grey on the head and throat is not seen on the young birds, which are browner and more spotted than the adults. This is a friendly bird and very easily tamed, so that it will often bring its mate to the kitchen door for food in winter, and its song is more melodious than many of our singers. The nest is built of moss, bits of stick, roots, and dry grass, in all kinds of hedges, or roadside thickets. The eggs, four to six, greenish-blue without spots and rough in texture. Many bird-lovers refuse to call this bird by the plebian name of Sparrow, with them it is always the Hedge Accentor. The food of this bird mainly consists of caterpillars, eggs of insects, wood-lice, earwigs, chrysalids, small seeds of weeds, house-refuse, etc. [Illustration: USEFUL. THE SKYLARK.] 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.