i8o BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



itself strictly to the immediate neighbourhood of woods, or clearings in plantations, 

 parks, and groves, although these are its favourite resorts ; for it also frequents 

 commons ; but trees appear to be necessary to its happiness, and where these do 

 not exist it will not be met with. 



Although very fond of perching on the branches of trees, the Wood-Lark feeds 

 principally on the ground, where it also roosts and builds its nest. The latter is 

 placed in a depression in the earth, sometimes under a grass-tussock or small 

 bush; it is more compactly built than that of the Sky- Lark; sometimes 

 of couch-grass and a little moss, with finer grass and a little hair for a lining ; 

 sometimes wholly of grass bents, the finer ones forming the lining. The eggs, 

 which in this country are often deposited by the middle of March, are apparently 

 not laid in Central Spain until the beginning of May (Lilford) or in the Parnassus 

 until the third week of that month (Seebohmj : they number from four to five, and 

 are buffish- or greenish-white, spotted with reddish-brown, or brownish-lilac, and 

 with underlying greyer spots : as with the allied species they may either be evenly 

 distributed over the entire surface, or more densely massed at the extremities, or 

 in a zone near the larger end ; as a rule, however, the spots are smaller and less 

 confluent than in eggs of the Sky-Lark, those of the Wood-Lark being generally 

 admitted to more nearly resemble some varieties of those of the Crested Lark. 

 The Wood-Lark is double-brooded, and I have never been out of town quite early 

 enough for the first brood. 



The food of this bird is exactly similar to that of the Sky-Lark, consisting 

 chiefly of insects in summer, and seeds in winter. 



The Wood-Lark's song is very pure and melodious and by many it is con- 

 sidered only second to that of the Nightingale, but it certainly is not so full 

 of variety as the song of that bird; nevertheless it has the merit of being 

 persevered in throughout the year, excepting during the moulting season; it 

 is usually commenced, and sometimes completed, from the branch of a tree; 

 but more frequently the tree only represents the point at which the flight- 

 song begins: the last time that I heard the flute-like music of this bird, I 

 was down at Dover with my old friend Dr. John Grayling of Sittingbourne ; 

 we were approaching a wood when, from a tree at the side of the road, we 

 heard the delightful song of a Wood-Lark ; looking up we soon espied him 

 on a branch and were able to identify him without difficulty by his short tail 

 and prominent eye-streak. Presently he soared away, rising at first obliquely 

 and then gradually swinging round, still singing, and rising until he had 

 reached the height of his ambition, when with wide spiral curves he descended 

 to the earth. The Wood-Lark is said sometimes to sing throughout the night, 



