SKY-LARK. 



59 



with finer grass, fine roots, and a little horsehair. The 

 female is a close sitter, and when leaving or visiting her 

 nest usually drops into the cover some distance from 

 it, and runs the remainder of the way through the 

 grass or herbage. The best way to find nests of this 

 species is to search systematically at dusk, walking up 

 and down the fields until the birds are flushed from 

 their eggs. They sit closer than usual at this time, and 

 seldom rise until nearly trodden upon. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Sky-Lark are from three to five in 

 number. They vary in ground colour from grayish- 

 white to white tinged with olive, thickly spotted, mottled, 

 and freckled with olive-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of pale vio!et-gray. As a rule the markings 

 are so thickly distributed as to conceal most of the 

 ground colour ; and round the larger end of the egg 

 they very frequently run into a more or less clearly- 

 defined zone, most distinct on eggs where the markings 

 are not very profuse elsewhere. Rare varieties are 

 white in ground colour, spotted and freckled with 

 reddish-brown surface-spots, and lilac-gray underlying 

 ones. The eggs of this species differ a good deal in 

 size and shape, some being very rotund, others elon- 

 gated. Average measurement, '92 inch in length, by 

 '&^ inch in breadth. Incubation, performed chiefly by 

 the female, lasts fourteen days. 



Dl\GNOSTIC characters : The numerous olive- 

 brown markings which conceal most of the surface are 

 a distinguishing characteristic of the eggs of the Sky- 

 Lark ; those of the Wood-Lark being spotted with red- 

 dish-brown. They most closely resemble those of the 

 Crested Lark, but this species docs not breed within 

 the limits of the British Islands. 



