316 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



visible. As a partial vegetarian the skylark can always pick up a 

 living when he can see the ground. 



Courtship. — An early breeder, the skylark begins courtship as soon 

 as winter shows signs of relaxing its grip. When two males are in 

 pursuit of the same female the trio may come hurtling over the 

 hedgerow even along the highway, oblivious of the passersby. One 

 gets a momentary glimpse of a scuffle on the ground when they have 

 passed by with broken song notes audible as they fly. Then one bird 

 drops out, and after a time we hear the clear, sweet notes of the song 

 as the cock rises higher and higher in the air. It is true that there 

 is not a great deal of range in the notes or variety in the song, yet, 

 as the notes come to us from the sky overhead there is an exhilarating 

 tone about them that is in keeping; with the season. Up he goes, 

 higher and higher, sometimes swinging round in a circle, and then 

 begins gradually to drop again to earth, finally by a steep descent before 

 "flattening out" to alight. 



In the actual display the cock runs round the hen with raised 

 crest and drooping wings ; the tail also is expanded. The hen is less 

 demonstrative but is said to quiver her wings before mating. 



Nesting. — The usual nesting site is either in meadow grass or 

 among crops; it may also be found exposed on sandy ground or 

 occasionally among stones on a shingle bed. The nest itself is an art- 

 less affair — merely a hollow in the ground with a lining of roots and 

 grasses and finer material, sometimes, but not always, with horsehair 

 added. Except when among crops that are regularly worked over, 

 only a small proportion of the nests is ever found, for, as a rule, the 

 nesting pairs are well spaced out and in grass or growing crops 

 finding the nest is largely a matter of chance. 



Eggs. — The normal clutch is three or four; in some districts five 

 are quite a rarity, but in others occasional. Six and even seven in a 

 nest have occurred, and certainly in some cases the extraordinary 

 resemblance left no doubt that they were produced by one hen. An 

 instance of eight eggs was, however, due to two females. Normally 

 the eggs are neither beautiful nor interesting, often with a yellow 

 cast, thickly and uniformly covered with pale spots of olive or hair 

 brown, so that little of the the grayish white ground is visible. Yet in 

 a selected series there is remarkable range of variation. Some 

 clutches are pure glossy white without a single mark; others have 

 a few fine brown and gray spots on a white ground ; some of the zoned 

 types, in which the dark brown markings are concentrated in a wide 

 zone round the big end, are decidedly handsome ; one set, with almost 

 black zones and a white ground, is very striking. There are also 

 warm red-brown sets, and a few cases are on record in which the 

 markings and even the tinge of ground color are purely erythristic. 



