SKY IARK. 475 



went to see if she was safe, when, to his great surprise, 

 he found that she had actually constructed a dome of dry 

 grass over the nest during the interval, leaving an aperture 

 on one side for ingress and egress, thus endeavouring to 

 secure a continuance of the shelter previously supplied by 

 the long grass." Two or three instances are recorded of 

 the Sky Lark moving its eggs under the fear of impending 

 danger ; and Mr. Jesse, in the fourth edition of his Glean- 

 ings, adds the following communication made to him by a 

 clergyman in Sussex, who, during a previous harvest, "was 

 riding gently towards Dell Quay, in Chichester Harbour, 

 with two friends ; when having passed the toll-bar, the 

 road is of good elevation, and separated by a short quick- 

 set hedge on each side from the fields, over which there 

 was a commanding view. When in this situation, their 

 attention was attracted by a shrieking cry, and they dis- 

 covered a pair of Sky Larks rising out of the stubble, and 

 crossing the road before them at a slow rate, one of them 

 having a young bird in its claws, which was dropped in 

 the opposite field at a height of about thirty feet from the 

 ground, and killed by the fall. On taking it up it ap- 

 peared to have been hatched about eight or nine days. 

 The affectionate parent was endeavouring to convey its 

 young one to a place of safety, but its strength failed in 

 the attempt.'* 



Mr. "W. P. Foster, surgeon, of Church-street, Hackney, 

 had for some years kept twelve or fifteen pairs of our 

 smaller singing birds together in an aviary, where they ap- 

 peared in excellent health and plumage, repaying the care 

 and attention bestowed upon them by pursuing the round 

 of their various interesting habits, the song, the court- 

 ship, the nest-building, and feeding their young, within 

 five or six feet of the window, outside which the aviary 

 was constructed, and through which window, when open, 



