LARKS, WOODPECKERS, ETC. 187 
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manufacturing town, the skylark may often be noticed 
towering aloft, and pouring out its floods of melody ; 
and frequently when the bird itself is a mere speck in 
the sky, its wonderful song gives evidence of its where- 
abouts to dwellers upon earth. Once, and once only, 
I have known a skylark to sing while sitting upon a 
fence, and upon that occasion I watched it for fully 
three minutes, during the whole of which time its 
song continued. 
The nest of the skylark is invariably placed upon 
the ground, generally in some small hollow, and is 
composed of dry grasses, leaves, and hairs, the struc- 
ture harmonising so well with the surrounding soil 
that, generally speaking, it can with difficulty be 
detected. Most of the larks’ nests that I myself have 
found I have discovered by pure accident. The eggs, 
four or five in number, are brownish-grey, marked 
with a deeper shade of colour, and two broods of 
young are generally brought up in the course of the 
season. ‘The skylark is more intelligent than many 
of its feathered relatives, and has not unfrequently 
been known to remove its eggs or young to a place 
of safety when menaced by an unexpected danger. 
In one well-authenticated instance the parent birds 
co-operated in the task, the male helping the young 
on to the back of their mother, who carried them off 
one by one. 
Tue Woodpeckers, again, belong to that large group 
of beings the members of which, although in reality 
beneficial, are generally looked upon as destructive in 
