450 ALAUDID^E. 



of the crop, witnessed this ; and about an hour afterwards 

 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, 

 has for some years kept twelve or fifteen pairs of our 

 smaller singing birds together in an aviary, where they 

 appear 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 



