ALAUDID^. 



251 



THE WOOD-LARK. 



Alauda arb6rea, Linnaeus. 



The Wood-Lark is a locally distributed species in England and 

 Wales, being chiefly found during the breeding-season on warm, 

 dry, light soils, especially on undulating ground studded with copses 

 or plantations. Although nowhere plentiful, it is most frequent in 

 some of the southern counties, such as Devon, Dorset, Wilts, and 

 Gloucestershire ; it occurs on the Chiltern Hills, and is also fairly 

 distributed along the dry, wooded and rising ground on both sides 

 of the valley of the Thames, as well as over the line of the chalk 

 formation which runs from Buckinghamshire to West Norfolk and 

 Suffolk. In the midland counties it is very local, and northward it 

 gradually becomes scarce ; comparatively few breeding in Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Cumberland and the Lake district. Up to that point 

 it appears to be a resident in some localities and an irregular 

 migrant in others, while it is a species which has suffered consider- 

 ably from the persecutions of bird-catchers and to some extent from 

 severe winters ; but few records for even the south of Scotland are 

 authentic, and it may be well to remember that the term "Wood- 

 Lark " is often misapplied to the Tree-Pipit. In winter considerable 

 companies are sometimes found in the southern districts of England, 

 especially in snowy weather, but there does not appear to be any 

 important immigration from the Continent. In Ireland this species 

 has bred in cos. Wicklow and Cork. 



The Wood-Lark rarely visits Heligoland. In summer it inhabits 

 the southern portion of Scandinavia, as well as Russia below about 



