THE SKYLARK 



ALAUDA AR7ENSIS 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and widely 

 distributed resident, its numbers enormously increased 

 in autumn by migrants from Continental Europe. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : Remarkable as the fact may seem to be, the 

 Skylark is one of London's most widely distributed and 

 commonest birds. Harting records that a nest of this 

 species was found on Primrose Hill. The occurrence was 

 exceptional, perhaps, but there are not a few localities a 

 mile or so outside that radius where this sweet-voiced 

 bird habitually rears its young. During autumn and 

 winter the Skylark visits many of London's open spaces 

 which it shuns at other seasons. I have heard it singing 

 on warm, open days in midwinter over Battersea Park, 

 Clapham Common, Wormwood Scrubbs, and in various 

 spots between Kensal Rise and Willesden Green. Its 

 breeding-zone may be said to commence with the more 

 rural suburbs, say from the six-mile radius outwards, 

 becoming more thickly populated as we reach the open 

 country, and more especially the higher-lying districts. 

 It is more abundant in the Metropolitan area in winter 

 than in summer, then becoming to a great extent gre- 

 garious. Flocks frequent many of the fields, market- 

 gardens, and allotments wherever suitable food can be 

 obtained. It still breeds sparingly within a mile of 

 Kensal Rise, in many places in the Willesden district, 

 and this very summer (1908) I heard it repeatedly in song 

 above the grounds of the Franco-British Exhibition at 

 Shepherd's Bush. Many of these birds frequent the 

 fields adjoining Wormwood Scrubbs, and breed in them. 

 Similar remarks apply to many other suburban districts. 



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