16 SKY LAEK. 



eggs have been known to be laid. Mr. Jesse says that if 

 some of the eggs be removed, and only one or two be left, 

 the bird will continue to lay for a long time, but that if 

 three be left she will sit. 



The nest is placed in a hollow scraped in the ground, with 

 or without the fortuitous shelter of a clod of earth or tuft of 

 herbage. It is placed in various situations, and is made of 

 grasses, and a fe\v chance leaves, the coarser outside, the finer 

 on the inner part. The male bird appears to bring the 

 materials to the spot, where the female is engaged in arranging 

 them. The young are hatched in about a fortnight: they 

 do not quit the nest until fully fledged, but return to it to 

 roost at night for some time after they have left it. 



The eggs, three, four, or five in number, vary much both 

 in form and colour; some are of a greyish white colour, with 

 a tinge of purple or green, and freckled and mottled nearly 

 all over with a darker shade of grey, greyish brown, or brown ; 

 others are of a deep sombre colour, and in some the chief 

 part of the colour is concentrated at the larger end, either 

 wholly or only partially around it. They are usually placed 

 with their smaller ends towards the centre. 



Male; length, seven inches and a quarter to seven and a 

 half; bill, dark brown above, and pale yellowish brown at the 

 base of the lower part; iris, dark brown: over it is a pale 

 yellowish brown streak. The feathers at the base of the bill 

 are tipped with bristles; a sort of crest is frequently raised 

 on the top of the head, the feathers there being rather long; 

 head on the sides, pale yellowish brown, on the crown, dark 

 brown, the edges of the feathers paler than the rest; neck on 

 the back, and nape, brown of three shades, the centre of the 

 feathers, along the shaft, being the darkest, and the margin 

 the lightest part; chin, pale yellowish brown; throat and 

 breast on the upper part, the same, with a tinge of rufous, 

 and spotted with small streaks of dark brown; underneath, 

 the latter is pale yellowish white; back, as the nape. 



The wings, which expand to nearly the width of one foot 

 three inches, extend to within an inch and a quarter of the 

 end of the tail ; the first feather is extremely short, the second 

 shorter than the third, which is the longest in the wing, the 

 fourth almost the same length; greater, and lesser wing coverts, 

 brown, with broad light brown edges; primaries, dusky brown, 

 the second with the outer web brownish white, the others 

 edged with the same; secondaries, dusky brown, tipped with 



