86 OUR RARER BIRDS 



it also selects some bare branch from which it sallies into 

 the air to warble forth its song or alight after its aerial 

 journey. 



As soon as the flocks of Wood Larks have broken up in 

 the early spring, the cock spends most of his time in song. 

 He sings lustily from the branches of the trees, and even more 

 so when flying round and round high in air. He does not 

 soar so rapidly or so high as the Sky Lark, but flies more in 

 circles, and often poises and flutters a few yards above the 

 tree-tops. In the melody and richness of its tone the Wood 

 Lark's song is far superior to that of the Skylark. If not quite 

 so loud it is even more continuous, and there are parts of it 

 that almost rival the refrain of the Blackcap and the Nightin- 

 gale. The Wood Lark may almost be classed as a perennial 

 songster, for except in the moulting season it may be heard 

 right through the year, even in midwinter, when an unusual 

 interval of warm weather rarely fails to call it into voice. 



Nowhere have I seen the Wood Lark so common as when 

 on a lovely May morning I came across quite a colony of 

 these birds amongst the wooded heights of the Aures 

 Mountains. They were in a little clearing amongst the dark 

 cedar forest, and the bracing mountain air was resonant with 

 their song. Although surrounded with many rare and beauti- 

 ful birds, the little Wood Lark seemed for the moment by far 

 the most interesting, and I sat and listened to his strains, 

 which so forcibly reminded me of far-off English woods and 

 groves, and which seemed to transport me in a moment from 

 Algerian wilds to the woodlands of Kent and Surrey, where 

 I have often heard his song. I could not help observing how 

 tame and trustful the bird was here so different from my 

 experience of him in England. Although the forest was on 

 every side, I never noticed a Wood Lark in it ; they preferred 

 the open spaces where the trees had been felled by the French 

 foresters or their Eoman predecessors. As many as^six birds 



