LARKS AND THEIR NESTS 



tunnel will not cause her to leave the nest, where she 

 remains quite still until she is on the point of being 

 captured. 



The Weka-rails, or Wood-hens (Ocydromus\Qi New Zealand 

 are known sometimes to make burrows, which they use both 

 as a retreat and for nesting purposes. They dig these holes 

 with their beaks only, without the help of their claws. 

 Though they have ample wings, these birds have entirely 

 lost the power of flight, and as they are much sought after 

 by the Maoris for food they are doomed to extinction at no 

 very distant date. 



The birds we have mentioned hitherto in this chapter all 

 make burrows or tunnels; but there are many others, amongst 

 them numerous game birds, which are content with a mere 

 hollow in the ground. 



The Skylark (Alauda arvensis) nests in meadows and 

 cornfields. The nest, a very simple one of bents lined with 

 finer grasses and rootlets, is always made on the ground and 

 very often in a slight hollow, which both birds are said to 

 co-operate in scratching out. 



The European Short-toed Lark (Calandrella brachydactyla), 

 whose sweet song is to be heard in Malta during the summer 

 months, and which is frequently offered for sale in the Paris 

 bird-shops, nests in the same manner as the skylark. The 

 nest, however, is often more artfully concealed by being 

 placed under the shelter of a clod of earth or beside a small 

 bush. 



Nests which are built on the ground are usually coarsely 

 constructed, but this is not an invariable rule. Thus the 

 common Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris\ which inhabits the 

 whole of the northern parts of Europe and often winters on 

 our eastern coasts, makes a rather deep nest in a hollow of 

 the ground, and lines it with fine grasses and husks of seeds, 



59 



