BREEDING.--The lark lays but once a year in cold countries, twice in the temperate, and three times in the warmer climates. Its nest, formed on the ground in a little hollow, is made without much art of straw, and the wool and hair of animals, and by preference in hollow ground or among the summer crops of grain. The eggs, in number from three to five, are of a whitish gray, spotted and dotted with dark gray; incubation lasts fourteen days. By the end of April the young are often hatched, and are at first only fed with insects, and leave the nest before they can fly; but they nevertheless continue to be fed by the mother till they can follow her in her excursions. Before the first moulting all the upper part of the body is dotted with white; if it is wished to take nestlings, they must be removed from the nest when the tail is about three quarters of an inch long. They are fed with crumb of white bread, and poppy-seed steeped in milk; some ants' eggs or a little minced lean meat will be a wholesome addition. The males are soon distinguished by their yellow colour. If it is intended to teach them to perform a tune, their instructor must commence before they are ready to fly, for by that time they already begin to record their natural song. They must also be completely separated from other singing birds, otherwise the great flexibility of their organs, joined to their memory, will infallibly cause them to adopt the song of such birds as they are near; and even old larks, brought into my bird-room, have learnt to imitate perfectly the nightingale and chaffinch. They vary, however, very much in this respect. Some females in confinement lay without the presence of a male, and others pair, but I have never yet succeeded in making them sit. One of my neighbours, notwithstanding the greatest care, has succeeded no better, though he had a female which laid from twenty to twenty-five eggs annually. There would undoubtedly be a better chance of success in a large garden aviary[61]. DISEASES.--Besides those which have been named in the Introduction, these birds are very subject to a kind of scurf or yellow crust round the base of the beak. The best remedy is to take care that they have good food; the second universal paste agrees with them particularly well; but greens, ants' eggs, meal-worms, or other insects, must be added. With this food they may be preserved healthy for many years in the house. Instances have been known of larks which have lived in this way for thirty years.