U9 



WOOD LAEK. 



PLATE LXXIII. 



Alauda arlorea, PENNANT. MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



" nemorosa, GMELIN. 



" cristatella, LATHAM. 



THE nest is placed upon the ground, beneath some low bush or 

 tuft of grass, or at the foot of a tree; occasionally under the shelter 

 of a fence or paling, or on a bank; one has been known on the 

 trunk of a fallen oak, on the topmost bough of which, perhaps, in 

 previous years when it still stood in all its pride, the bird had warbled 

 forth her strains, and now when levelled with the earth, she ' could 

 not bid the spot adieu/ but sang a daily requiem over the fallen 

 remains. The outside materials are small roots, grass, and sometimes 

 tnoss, and the lining smaller grasses, with occasionally a little hair. 



The eggs, which are laid at the end of March or beginning of April, 

 and also in July, there seeming to be two broods in the year, are four 

 or five in number, of a pale reddish white, or yellowish brown ground 

 colour, spotted and speckled with dull reddish brown, or dark grey, 

 or brownish grey, with sometimes a few irregular dusky lines at the 

 larger end. 



The figure of the nest is from a specimen obligingly forwarded by 

 W. Bridger, Esq.; and that of the egg from one taken in Hampshire, 

 early in the month of March, by the Rev. J. Williams. 



