i86 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



sandy brown, with dark brown centres to the feathers ; the central tail-feathers 

 are smoky brown, the remainder blackish, but the two outer feathers have 

 pale buffish patches, similar to the white patches on the tail of the Sky- Lark; 

 a white superciliary streak ; under parts white, suffused with pale buff on the 

 breast and flanks ; a few dark streaks on the sides of the neck : bill dark 

 brown, paler below ; feet yellowish horn-brown ; iris hazel. The female 

 resembles the male in plumage. The young have all the feathers of the 

 upper parts tipped and bordered with buff. After the autumn moult the 

 plumage is redder. 



Colonel Irby (Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar) says : " On the 

 Andalucian side of the Straits the spring arrival commences about the middle 

 of March, and the passage continues for a month later, at which time nests 

 with eggs may be found near Gibraltar. Excessively abundant, as above 

 stated, in the same situations as the Calandra ; they prefer fallow ground, 

 nesting under shelter of some clod or in any slight depression of the ground. 

 I never could find the nest, except by putting the old bird off." 



Howard Saunders says : " During the breeding-season the bird frequents 

 dry and sandy soil, and plains where the herbage is somewhat scanty ; while 

 its tameness is such as often to cause difficulty in shooting a specimen for 

 identification without blowing it to pieces, and I have seen a bird cut down 

 with a whip in the road. The male utters his short and feeble song while 

 perched on some clod or low wall, or during a brief, undulating, and some- 

 what jerky flight. In autumn and winter large flocks are formed." 



The season of uidification, as Seebohrn has pointed out, of the Short-toed 

 L/ark varies, commencing at dates decided by the conditions of climate in the 

 countries where it spends its summer ; in the warmer regions it begins as 

 early as April, whilst in colder countries nesting operations may be delayed 

 until June. 



The nest, like that of all its allies, is in a slight depression on the 

 ground, sometimes barely sheltered by irregularities of the soil, but frequently 

 as with other Larks, placed amongst grass or partly sheltered by a bush. It 

 is of the ordinary type, and consists of grass-bents, rootlets, down, and some- 

 times feathers with a few hairs as a finish to the lining. 



The eggs as well as the nest are very similar to those of our Sky-Lark, 

 excepting in their inferior size, and (as is the case with that bird) a nest 

 will sometimes only contain a clutch of three ; but I have always considered 

 it probable, when the normal number of eggs is from four to five, as with 

 the Short-toed and Sky-Larks, that the bird has been disturbed in its first 



