VOL. XIII.] SURREY FIELD NOTES. 227 



40-50 yards of the spot. I mention this because I have 

 found the birds show a distinct preference for Scotch pine 

 localities. 



Messrs. Borrer and Baynes having returned to London I was 

 left to investigate further this interesting discovery. On the 

 following day I visited a warreny spot which I considered a 

 likely one for Wood-Lark, and it was not long before I heard 

 the now familiar song. I searched in vain on the common 

 side of the hedge, which was a turf wall on which small bushes 

 and trees were growing. I then re-started my search on the 

 field side which was of a warreny nature with short grass and 

 bracken, and among the latter within a few yards of the hedge 

 I spotted an undoubted Wood-Lark sitting close. She flew 

 off on my stooping to the nest, exposing to view three typical 

 eggs ; the nest was neatly tucked away under a bower of 

 bracken. I followed up my success on the following day 

 by finding another nest with three eggs in the adjoining field 

 in almost an exactly similar position, in this case the bird 

 had not commenced to sit. 



On May 4th, I revisited the district with Mr. Baynes and 

 found another nest with four eggs, from which we flushed 

 the bird. This was almost in the centre of the same field in 

 which I found the third nest mentioned above, it was on a 

 piece of uncultivated ground between two cultivated patches, 

 very similar to the Suffolk ground, but there were no pines 

 within 200 yards of this spot except a few isolated ones. On 

 nearly every subsequent visit to this district I heard and 

 saw Wood-Larks, and in June I put up several small parties 

 which by their flight and pale colour appeared to be birds 

 of the year. 



Quite apart from the satisfaction of finding these birds 

 plentiful in the county it is also satisfactory to know they were 

 not entirely exterminated by the winter of 1916-1917, as 

 reports from Suffolk (which I afterwards confirmed) led me 

 to believe. I consider, however, that it is not at all improbable 

 that the birds were driven south, and having found food and 

 conditions suited to their requirements have remained. I 

 am quite convinced that their present status in Surrey is not 

 of long standing, at least not in this particular district, and 

 it may prove to be temporary only. It is certainly a rare 

 bird in Surrey. Bucknill apparently had no personal acquain- 

 tance with the species as a breeding bird, and says that the 

 bird has not been noticed at all in Surrey by most of the 

 modern observers {Birds of Surrey, p. 144). It certainly 

 could not be easily overlooked by those who have had previous 



