184 The Skv-Lakk 



the sccuiid feather white on the outer web only : inider parts buffish-white, spotted 

 and streaked witli l:)hickish-br(iwu on tlie throat, breast and flanks; bill dark 

 brown above, paler below ; feet j-ellowish-brown ; iris hazel. The female is rather 

 smaller than the male, and has shorter wings, but d(jes not differ in plumage : 

 3-oung birds have broad buff tips to the feathers. After the autumn moult both 

 sexes are more tawn}^ in colouring. 



In order to tell the sex of the Sky- Lark, the London bird-dealers take the bird 

 in the left hand with the tail towards them, and with the right hand draw down 

 the wing until the point of the first long primar}' touches the tip of the outer- 

 most tail-feather : the wing of the male being distinctl}- longer than that of the 

 female, the so-called "shoulder" then appears to be much more angular in the 

 former than in the latter se.\. I have seen considerable numbers of birds thus 

 tested, the males being caged and the females returned to the catchers, and I 

 never knew the test to fail : but females are rarely forwarded b}- experienced bird- 

 catchers, most of them being killed at the nets and sold to the poulterers. 



Although abundant enough on moors and commons, downs, grassy cliffs, and 

 even mountains, the Sky-Lark certainly prefers arable land, pastures, and parks : 

 it seems especially to delight in fields of clover : it shuns all places thickly 

 studded with trees, such as woods, copses, and plantatious, but is almost always 

 to be met with in country cemeteries. 



Excepting when in pursuit of another iudividual of its own species, the flight 

 of the Sky-Lark does not strike one as being particularly rapid ; it is somewhat 

 undulating, and there is a fluttering motion, even when it is crossing a field, which 

 is ver3' characteristic. The male, when soaring, always commences its upward 

 flight with this butterfly-like hovering action, and sometimes it is continued until 

 it reaches its highest elevation ; at other times it rises obliquel}- and rapidl}', its 

 song the whole time fitting its movements : in its descent it sometimes drops 

 abruptly perhaps for forty or fifty feet, pauses a second and drops again, making 

 perhaps three or four stages in its fall, until, as it nears the ground, it flutters 

 round in a half-circle to the earth ; each drop being accompanied by the finishing 

 shrill 'ivhcc, tvhee, w/icc of its song: often it comes down with a wide graceful sweep. 



The nest is placed in a depression in the ground, generall}- amongst growing 

 crops, often merely sheltered on one side b}' an overhanging tuft of coarse grass 

 or other vegetation, and sometimes without any shelter whatever ; a singular nest 

 with a kind of lid formed of water-weed, which was pointed out to me by a 

 shepherd in the Isle of Sheppy, is described in my " Handbook." The nest itself 

 is more or less loosely constructed of dried bents and dead grass, and lined with 

 finer grass-stalks. The eggs number from four to five, and sometimes three may 



