38 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



straws, and roots, and lined with finer grass, roots, and 

 sometimes hair. The female is said to do the building, 

 the male collecting the materials, and the nest is loosely- 

 made. The bird is a close sitter, and when disturbed 

 flies away with no demonstration of alarm. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Crested Lark are four or five in number. 

 They vary in ground colour from pale yellowish-white 

 to white with a faint tinge of green or blue, mottled, 

 freckled, and blotched with various shades of olive- 

 brown, and with underlying markings of gray. Several 

 distinct types are noticeable. One type has the mark- 

 ings dark and clearly defined, the gray spots very 

 conspicuous, and both classes of spots evenly distributed. 

 Another has the markings dark and very minute dusted 

 over the surface, but most numerous at the larger end, 

 where they frequently form a zone. A third is so 

 closely mottled as to hide almost all trace of the pale 

 ground colour. Average measurement, '95 inch in 

 length by '68 inch in breadth. Incubation, performed 

 by the female, lasts fourteen days. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Crested 

 Lark, as I pointed out ten years ago in the History of 

 British Birds, very closely resemble those of the Wood 

 Lark, and I am unable to give any reliable character 

 by which they may be separated. On an average those 

 of the present species are larger, bulkier, and greener. 



