THE WOOD-LARK 113 



from nine to a dozen males singing in the air in 

 close proximity, the circles described by one often 

 bisecting those made by the next, and so on ; or 

 for one pair to pay another a fleeting visit ; while, 

 if a nest is under inspection, a passing Wood-Lark 

 will nearly always stop momentarily to add its 

 agitation and alarm-cries to the laments of its 

 neighbours. 



Nest-building, at which both sexes assist, 

 though the female is ever the most assiduous, 

 commences on an average between March 10th and 

 15th, and the nest itself is completed in six or seven 

 days. Sometimes, however, it remains empty for 

 a day or so longer. The position chosen for it 

 is somewhat varied, though it is practically always 

 on the ground. Generally in Wales at any rate 

 the nest is placed under the lea of a tuft of withered 

 bracken, but a small bramble may arch over it, 

 or, again, it is barely concealed by a spray or 

 waving bunch of grass or rushes. Although some 

 nests are admirably hidden, others escape detection 

 from their very openness, being wedged in the 

 centre of a scrubby grass-tussock, or at the base 

 of low heath. Some nests are so very open that 

 their contents are liable to catch the glance of 

 every passer-by. Occasionally, too, a nest is found 

 jambed between several short stalks of dead 

 bracken, or on a low hummock of soil. 



In construction, the nest for which a scratch- 

 ing is first fashioned in the earth is of the 



