WOOD LARK. 257 



our resident birds appear in their old haunts and quickly 

 make their return known by soaring skjrvvards and pouring 

 forth their full song, very different from the half-hearted 

 trillings of those on the move. 



Three or four eggs usually constitute a clutch, and when 

 five are found they almost invariably belong to a second nest. 

 At the Teesmouth there is a marked diversity of colouring in 

 the eggs laid on the marshes, every variation being found, 

 from an almost white ground clearly mottled with reddish 

 brown, to a very dark or almost black type. 



White and cream, or buff-coloured, varieties of the bird 

 are not uncommon in Yorkshire ; on gth October 1890, I 

 saw a white one in a migrating flock coming in from seaward, 

 and a pied individual was secured at Scarborough, as 

 mentioned in the Zoologist for 1883, p. 79. 



Of local names. Lark is the generally-used term, modified 

 to Song-Lark at Ackworth ; Sky alone is in use at the Tees- 

 mouth. In 1827 Laverack was noted as used in Craven, 

 and at Sedbergh this becomes Laverock. 



WOOD LARK. 

 Alauda arborea (Z.). 



Resident ; very limited both in numbers and distribution. 



The first published record of this species in Yorkshire 

 is in Graves's ' History of Cleveland," 1808, where it is 

 enumerated in the list of birds. 



Thomas Allis, in his Report of 1844, wrote : — 



Alauda arborea. — Woodlark — Is met with near Doncaster ; also 

 occasionally at Killingbeck, near Leeds, and more rarely in the vicinities 

 of York and Sheffield, and it is now very rarely seen about Barnsley ; 

 it breeds sparingly at Langwith, and Roans near York, as I am informed 

 by J. and W. Tuke. 



The Wood Lark is resident in limited numbers, and very 

 sparingly distributed. It has been reported from the vicinity 

 VOL. I. s 



