WOOD-LARK. 61 



corded one in a stump of heather), sometimes in a very 

 exposed situation on the bare turf, but more generally 

 well concealed under brambles and briars, or beneath the 

 shelter of a tuft of herbage or little bush. It is a simple 

 structure, placed in a little hollow, usually scratched out 

 by the parent birds, and made of coarse grass and moss, 

 and neatly lined with finer grass and a little horsehair. 

 Like so many other ground-building birds the Wood- 

 Lark is a close sitter, and when leaving the nest volun- 

 tarily runs for some distance through the herbage ere 

 taking wing. The male sings constantly and sweetly 

 throughout the nesting season. 



RANGE OF EGG COLOURATION AND MEASUREMENT: 

 The eggs are four or five in number, and vary from pale 

 bufftsh-white to white tinged with green in ground 

 colour, spotted and freckled with reddish-brown, and 

 with underlying markings of violet-gray. On some 

 eggs the markings are pretty evenly distributed over the 

 entire surface ; on others they form a zone either round 

 the end, or, more rarely, round the centre ; whilst others 

 have most of the colouring matter in a more or less 

 confluent mass at either end. Average measurement, 

 83 inch in length, by '63 inch in breadth. Incubation, 

 performed almost if not entirely by the female, lasts 

 fourteen days. 



DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERS : The white ground colour 

 and distinct reddish-brown markings distinguish the 

 eggs of the Wood-Lark from every species breeding in 

 the British Islands at all likely to be confused with them. 



