CHAPTER VII. 



CONCERNING THE WOOD-LARK. 



MANY books on British birds hold that the Wood- 

 Lark,* if rather local, is nevertheless, widely 

 distributed throughout our islands. As a matter 

 of fact, however, it is not only a very local bird 

 everywhere, but is also in very many places one 

 of extremely rare occurrence, as a breeding species 

 at any rate. In England its chief nesting-resorts 

 are said to extend from Kent to Cornwall in the 

 south practically none, however, now nest in 

 Sussex ; I know of but one breeding-haunt in the 

 county, and that boasting but a couple of pairs, 

 and this, too, after eight years of patient search 

 in likely spots and thence northwards through 

 Gloucester and Hereford of the western Mid- 

 lands to Norfolk and Suffolk of the eastern ; in 

 which two latter counties it is locally, of course 

 tolerably plentiful. Further north than this, the 

 bird becomes quite rare, till in Scotland it is well- 

 nigh unknown, except as a rare straggler. In 

 Cambria, however, it is found in local abundance 

 in Brecknock, Radnor, Cardigan, and Carmarthen, 

 particularly in the first-named shire, one of its 



* Lullula arborea (L.) 



