THE SKYLARK 
ALAUDA ARVENSIS 
Loca names in surrounding counties : 
Sratus 1n British Avirauna: A common and widely 
distributed resident, its numbers enormously increased 
in autumn by migrants from Continental Europe. 
Raprat DisrrisuTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s: Remarkable as the fact may seem to be, the 
Skylark is one of London’s most widely distributed and 
commonest birds. Harting records that a nest of this 
species was found on Primrose Hill. ‘The occurrence was 
exceptional, perhaps, but there are not a few localities a 
mile or so outside that radius where this sweet-voiced 
bird habitually rears its young. During autumn and 
winter the Skylark visits many of London’s open spaces 
which it shuns at other seasons. I have heard it singing 
on warm, open days in midwinter over Battersea Park, 
Clapham Common, Wormwood Scrubbs, and in various 
spots between Kensal Rise and Willesden Green. Its 
breeding-zone may be said to commence with the more 
rural suburbs, say from the six-mile radius outwards, 
becoming more thickly populated as we reach the open 
country, and more especially the higher-lying districts. 
It is more abundant in the Metropolitan area in winter 
than in summer, then becoming to a great extent gre- 
garious. Flocks frequent many of the fields, market- 
gardens, and allotments wherever suitable food can be 
obtained. It still breeds sparingly within a mile of 
Kensal Rise, in many places in the Willesden district, 
and this very summer (1908) I heard it repeatedly in song 
above the grounds of the Franco-British Exhibition at 
Shepherd’s Bush. Many of these birds frequent the 
fields adjoining Wormwood Scrubbs, and breed in them. 
Similar remarks apply to many other suburban districts. 
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