SKY-LARK. 99 



frequently, considering the immensitj' of the flocks {Mr, 

 C. S. Gregson in the Zoologist for 1873 states that he 

 has gone over in one house in one day seventy score 

 dozens without seeing an abnormal feather), but nielanic 

 forms appear to occur oftener than with most other 

 species. The Sky-Lark breeds the end of April or 

 beginning of May, and lays four eggs in a nest of dry 

 grass, this seldom being above the lower levels. 



TMr. E. J. Howard says that a bird-catcher named 

 Cookson found Skj'-Larks more plentiful on Tarleton 

 Moss in the winter of 1890-91 than he ever knew them 

 before ; in one fortnight he took 95 dozen. — Ed.^ 



WOOD-LAEK. 



Alauda arborea, Linn?eus. 



Once a common resident in many parts of Lancashire, 

 the Wood-Lark is now almost extinct within the county 

 boundaries, and is very rare at any season of the year. 

 This appears to be the case generall}' throughout the 

 north of England, and probably the incessant pursuit 

 of this species by the professional bird-catcher has a 

 godd deal to do with its increasing scarcity. One or 

 two score years ago it is recorded as having been j)len- 

 tiful near Liverpool and Prescot, in Wyresdale, at 

 Samlesbury on the Eibble, and in the Winster valley : 

 but no evidence as to any nest taken since that time has 

 come under my notice, and hardly has its beautiful song 

 been heard. Blackwall (" Eesearches in Zoology," p. 58) 

 writes of it as singing in the neighbourhood of Man- 

 chester from the 20th of March to the 23rd of October : 

 a mean of eleven years' observations, from 1818 to 1828, 

 being taken. 



II 2 



