ALAUDID.^. 



24t 



THE WOODLARK. 



Alauda arb(:')REA, Linnaeus. 



The Woodlark is a locally distributed species in England and 

 Wales, and during the breeding-season it is chiefly to be found 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 is also fairly distributed along the 

 dry, wooded and rising ground on both sides of the valley of the 

 Thames, and over the line of the chalk formation which runs from 

 Buckinghamshire to West Norfolk. In the midland counties it is 

 very local, and northward it gradually becomes scarce ; compara- 

 tively few breeding in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland and the 

 Lake district. Up to that point, however, it appears to be a resident 

 which has suffered considerably from the persecutions of bird- 

 catchers and to some extent from severe winters ; but in Scotland 

 it is only a rare and local visitor in summer as far as Stirling- 

 shire, where its nest has been taken by Mr. Harvie-Brown ; though 

 on migration examples are said to have been obtained much further 

 north, and once even in Orkney. Many of these records require 

 corroboration, and it may be well to remember that the term 

 ' Woodlark ' is often misapplied to the Tree Pipit by bird-catchers 

 and others. In winter considerable numbers are sometimes found 

 in the southern districts of England, especially in snowy weather, 

 but there does not appear to be any considerable immigration from 

 the Continent. In Ireland it is resident in a few suital)le localities. 



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