260 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



procured in Surrey and the latter in Yorkshire. In 

 cultivated and uncultivated districts throughout the 

 United Kingdom, but not in woods and plantations. 



Materials. — Grass, roots, and horsehair, the 

 latter two often quite absent and the first used 

 sparingly. 



Eggs. — Four to five, of a dirty white ground 

 colour, occasionally tinged with olive-green, thickly 

 spotted and speckled with olive-brown, and under- 

 lying markings of greyish-brown. The markings are 

 generally so thickly and evenly distributed as to 

 hide the ground colour, but occasionally, the mark- 

 ings are less thickly distributed and collected in a 

 kind of belt at the larger end of the egg. Size 

 about -93 by -68 in. Distinguished from Woodlark 

 by crowded olive-brown markings. 



Time. — April, May, June, and July. 



HemarJis. — Eesident, though subject to partial 

 migration and much local movement. Notes : song 

 consists of several strains, trilling, warbling notes, 

 variously modulated, and interrupted now and again 

 by loud whistling. Local and other names : Lavrock, 

 Field Lark. A close sitter when the ground is rough 

 and uneven, but not particularly so when it is bare 

 and the situation exposed. 



SNIPE, COMMON. 



Deseription of Parent Birds. — Length about ten 

 and a half inches ; beak very long (about two and 

 three-quarter inches), straight, and pale reddish- 

 brown at the base and dusky towards the tip. Irides 

 dark brown. Crown blackish-brown, divided in the 

 centre by a buffi sh-brown longitudinal line ; another 

 line of the same colour commences at the base of 



