222 



AhAVBlDJE. 



" The nest is pLaced iu any little hollow more or less overgrown 

 with short grass, and one I foniid with a stone partly overhanging 

 it. It is composed, just like that of the English Sky-Lark, of a 

 small quantity of fine grass. Number of eggs three or "four, greyish 

 white, mottled and speckled all over with two shades of light 

 brown. The colouring closely resembles that of the eggs of A. 

 arvensis." 



From Saharunpoor Colonel G. F. L. Marshall writes : — " Our 

 Sky-Lark builds a deep cup-shaped nest on the ground, against 

 some clod of earth, composed of grass. It lavs iu the latter half 

 of May, and five is the full number of the eggs." 



Major C. T. Bingham says : — " I have only found nests of this 

 bird at Allahabad, where it bred from the end of February to the 

 end of April. Of eight nests found marked down for me, none 

 contained more than three eggs. 



"The nests are more or less deep saucers composed of fine 

 grass-roots, very loosely put together, and placed nearly always 

 under the shelter of a tuft of grass." 



Colonel E. A. Butler writes :^" The Indian Sky-Lark is not 

 particularly common. I found a nest near Deesa on the 8th July, 

 containing two eggs, amongst some tussocks of coarse grass in the 

 sandy bed of a river. The nest consisted of a well-woven pad of 

 fine dry grass, placed in a hollow at the root of a small tuft of grass 

 growing on bare shingle." 



" Belgaum : 18th April, two fresh eggs; 10th April, two eggs 

 slightly incubated. Both nests were built on the ground in small 

 depressions by the side of a clod of earth, on a very open maidan, 

 where the grass had been burnt away. I snared the hen birds at 

 the nest, so that there sliould be no doubt as to identity. The 

 nests were of the usual Lark-type — neat little cups of dry grass, 

 coarse exteriorly, and fine uithin. Another nest, which I took on 

 the 26th April, containing two incubated eggs, had a collection of 

 small pieces of dried horse-dung iu front of it, forming a slight em- 

 bankment in front of the entrance. 



" Belgaum : 17th September, 1879, found three fresh eggs. The 

 nest consisted of a neat little cup sunk iu a patch of short green 

 grass on a grassy plain, upon which numerous herds of cattle were 

 feeding. It was scantily lined with fine dry grass-stems, with 

 a single lock (numbering about half a dozen hairs) of black horse- 

 hair intertwined with the grass at the bottom of the nest. On 

 trying to remove it, the whole aff"air fell to pieces in my hand. 

 It was a difficult nest to find, being completely overgrown by the 

 surrounding grass, with a small passage thrcaigh the grass on one 

 side for ingress and egress. To make sure of the species, although 

 I had very little doubt, as the cock bird was soaring high overhead 

 singing beautifully at the time, I laid a horsehair noose at the nest 

 and caught the hen bird. I shot a young bird in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, only just able to fiy, in June, so that they lay also much 

 earlier in the season." 



J\Jr. B. Aitken writes :—'' ALola, 20th July, 1876.— I found a 



