372 THE SKY-LARK. 



But deep this truth impress'd my mind 

 Through all His works abroad ; 



The heart — benevolent and kind — 

 The most resembles God !" 



But 



The bird which upward soars with many a bound, 

 Has still its nest upon the lowly ground. 



For, like the pipits, the sky-lark scrapes a hollow in the grass 

 or bare field, and makes its nest of dry roots and grass, in 

 which it lays from three to five dark eggs, freckled over with 

 darker spots, about the same size as the wood-lark's, but 

 darker, J long by J 16 . She sits close, but when forced to rise, 

 flies low with a tremulous flight, and alights close by, or hovers 

 around, with a low churr, which brings her mate. When 

 bringing food her nest can be discovered, as she hovers over 

 and drops beside it. It lays early in May, and has two broods. 

 The first flies in the end of June, the second in the end of 

 August ; but on April 27th I got a nest on the links with 

 three deep-sitten eggs, and on May 24 th one with four young 

 ones, which flew. It was in a clover field, in a hollow scooped 

 out by the birds to make room for the nest — a wise provision 

 to allow the scythe or cutting-machine to pass over it. The 

 top was flush with the ground — I write from personal observa- 

 tion. The nest was lined with fine dry grass, but, when the 

 young were half ripe, the herd boy got some horse-hair and 

 lined it ; the old birds paid no heed, but fed their young as 

 before. As a rule, birds do not forsake their nests though you 

 handle their eggs or young, unless you come with a sudden 

 rush. Sometimes when the nest is exposed by the scythe 

 they will make a cover of dry grass with a hole in it. Mr 

 Hewitson gives an instance of this — proof positive that the 

 nest is sunk, for the scythe cuts close, and would have cut the 

 eggs or young unless in a hollow. In April 1890 a friend 

 of mine, on putting up a fence round a grass park, got a nest 

 with eggs a foot from the fence ; to preserve it from the cows 

 he put a circle of wire netting round it, fourteen inches in 

 diameter, and thirty inches high. Appreciating the kind 

 intention, the old birds flew in and out of this open tunnel, 

 and reared their young till they flew. They roost on the 

 ground, the barest places, and often become the prey of weasels 

 at night, as of birds of prey during the day. It is said that 

 starlings, as well as carrion crows, also prey upon their eggs 

 when searching for worms, but I doubt this. I never observed 



