260 miTISH 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. 



Remarks. 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. 



Description 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 



