CRESTED LARK 229 



perhaps likely to evoke more interest than the eggs of 

 the Crested Lark (Alauda crista ta), taken in Eomney 

 Marsh on June 7, and subsequently purchased by nie 

 at Steven's Auction Rooms. The recorded evidence of 

 the breeding of this bird in England having hitherto 

 been confined to one alleged instance, at Ibiston, near 

 Cambridge, in 1881 {Zoologist, 1883, p. 178), ornithologists 

 will doubtless be glad to hear of a well-authenticated case, 

 the parent birds having been seen by Mr. Sydney Webb, 

 as well as by Mr. George Gray, a well-known naturalist, 

 at Dover. I quote from a letter addressed to Mr. Stevens 

 by Mr. Webb on Mr. Gray's behalf, and sold with the 

 eggs : ' Mr. Gray, of this town (Dover), who is an 

 ornithologist and taxidermist, having been informed by 

 some lads, who had been watching birds for him, that 

 they had discovered a nest of eggs which they did not 

 know, we were led to the spot, but only to find one young 

 bird hatched out, one broken ego;, and one addled ; the 

 latter you now have. Scarcely bad the egg passed from 

 hand to hand when one of the boys called out, " There's 

 the old one ; look at his top-knot ! " And sure enough, 

 we saw a living Crested Lark close to us. There could 

 be no mistake, the long crest reclining backwards. Crane- 

 like, quite unlike an ordinary Lark's raised crest.' It is 

 curious also that the birds made a second nest, from 

 which another egg was obtained early in August. This 

 also passed into my hands." — C. A. Briggs (55, Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields). 



Mr. G. Dowker states that a Crested Lark was obtained 

 at Rainham, on the authority of the late Mr. C. Gordon, 

 of Dover. 



