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156 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



THE SHORE LARK. 



Cold northern climates, like Lapland and Siberia, are 

 cbosen by the Shore Lark for breeding-places. Its nest is 

 generally situated in some slight hollow on the ground, and 

 is loosely made of grass, with an inner lining of willow- 

 down or hair from the reindeer. Her eggs number three, 

 four, or five, the second figure being the general rule, and 

 are, like those of the Common Lark, liable to variation in 

 colouring. The ground-colour is of a brownish or pale green, 

 tinted white,marked with neutral brown spots often so profuse 

 that they cover the greyer spots underlying entirely out. 



THE GANNET. 



This bird seems to prefer just the opposite course to that 

 which most birds adopt in the breeding season, viz., to con- 

 gregate in thousands, and breed on precipitous rocks, 

 engaging all ledges and shelves capable of holding a nest, 

 which is composed of seaweed and other rubbish picked up 

 by the bird from the ocean, also grass. One egg only is 

 laid, white or bluish- white when first deposited on the nest, 

 but soon becoming dirty and soiled by being trodden upon. 

 Like the Cormorant, this bird's egg is covered with an 

 incrustation of white, hiding the colour of the true shell, 

 which is of a greenish or bluish-white. 



THE QUAIL. 

 Green cornfields are generally the situations chosen by the 

 Quail for a nesting-place, where it selects a small depres- 

 sion in the ground, and tramples a few blades of grass or 

 <'"rn down into it, occasionally a few dead leaves. Her eggs 

 number from seven to even as many as twenty, of -a pale 



