THE LARKS 215 



skylarks, leave the nest before they can fly, and take refuge in the 

 herbage in the immediate neighbourhood, whereby, doubtless, they 

 obtain a greater measure of safety from enemies. 



According to Mr. W. Farren, who has supplied some useful 

 notes for this chapter, nesting begins early in March. He remarks 

 that in the vicinity of the nests several "dummy" nests are commonly 

 found, most of them merely deep scrapes showing bare soil at the 

 bottom ; some, however, have a slight lining of grass. It has been 

 thought that such " dummies," which are more conspicuous than the 

 real nests, are made for the purpose of drawing attention from the 

 latter. But it is more probable that the unlined "scrapes" are old 

 " dust-baths," for the woodlark, like the skylark, is fond of dust-baths, 

 and never bathes in water. Or both the lined and unlined may 

 be beginnings of nests, abandoned by the birds because in too 

 conspicuous a position. 



The nestlings in a brood Mr. Farren had under observation 

 were very active, and soon left the nest, one or other of the more 

 venturesome running sometimes a yard or two, to meet its parents 

 returning with food ; such eagerness, however, was apparently always 

 unrewarded, for the parents refused to deliver food save at the nest. 

 Discovering this, the vagrant returned suddenly to its fellows in 

 a way which seemed to suggest that it was being pulled back by a 

 piece of elastic. On reaching the nest the young one wriggled itself 

 backwards among its companions. Feeding in the case of the 

 woodlark seems to take place more frequently than in the case of 

 the skylark, for the parents brought flies and other insects at varying 

 intervals of from three to eight minutes throughout the day. Perhaps 

 this is to be accounted for by the nature of the food. As with most 

 Passerine birds, the excreta of the young are carefully and constantly 

 removed by the parents. 



While two broods are generally reared, this number is apparently 

 frequently exceeded, both by the skylark and woodlark. According to 

 Newton, the latter may rear as many as four broods in a season, when 



