ALAUDA ARBOUEA. 3S5 



§ 2023. Fo^/r.— Elveden, 27 April, 1859. "J. W." 



The nest Avas shewn to me by Messrs. A. & E. Newton. It was 

 ou the ground in a little tuft^ a track of dried grass (perhaps 

 accidentally) leading up to it. They shewed me several nests of 

 this bird, mostly already taken by themselves — some of last year. 

 They were all on the level ground and some paces outside of the 

 covert. The birds when disturbed at one nest went to another at 

 several hundred paces' distance, or less. 



[During- a short stay at our home, my brother and I had the pleasure of 

 introducing Mr. Wolley to this species, whose acquaintance he had not before 

 made.] 



[§ 2024. Three. —Yalkenswaard, North Brabant, 1851. 



Selected out of a large number sent direct to me by Arnold Bots.] 



yards from its nest. In 1852 we applied ourselves seriously to watching the 

 habits of this species, with the result of finding nine nests, two of them containing 

 young, belonging to six pairs of birds. Nearly all of these were discovered by 

 my brother, who took great trouble about them. The haunt of a pair being found 

 by hearing the cock sing, and the song is recognizable a long way off, he had to be 

 patiently watched, until he joined his mate on coming off her nest to feed. Since 

 she was always careful to expose herself as little as possible, she was often not 

 easily detected, and once seen, an eye had to be kept on her until she returned 

 to her nest, a fact usually though not always announced by the cock flying away, 

 and often mounting aloft to deliver his song. This procedure on our part was 

 almost invariably successful, though the preliminary watching of the cock was often 

 protracted, depending much on the time of day, for the hen hardly ever left her 

 nest except early in the morning and towards sundown. In this way nearly all 

 but two or three of the nests we found, both then and subsequently, were procured. 

 Having supplied our own wants, we did not take so much trouble in subsequent 

 years; but I see, from notes made at the time, that between 18-52 and 1859 

 inclusive we found twenty -eight nests, all but seven with eggs, which were 

 generally four in number. I may here quote from information, with which I in 

 1854 supplied Mr. Hewitson (Eggs of Br. B. ed. 8, i. p. 180), that "the localities 

 to which the birds are most partial are old sheep-walks in the vicinity of Scotch 

 fir-trees. On places such as these the herbage is so scanty that they can hardly 

 be said to choose a tuft of grass as the situation of their nests, though they 

 generally select a spot where the bents are the thickest ; I have, however, found a 

 nest where the tuft was as short as a well kept lawn, and I have seen one secluded 

 in a clump of heather. Their nests are usually more compact than those of the 

 Skylai-k, and will bear being taken up from the hole in which they are built." 

 I may add that I do not remember having ever heard the Woodlark sing when 

 perched on a tree or seated on the ground, as some writers state they have. — Ed.j 



