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SOME NESTING HABITS OF THE WOOD-LARK 

 AS OBSERVED IN NORTH DEVON. 



BY 

 F. BARBER-STARKEY. 



(Plate I.) 



On May 1st, 1908, Captain R. D. Fanshawe, with whom 

 I was staying in North Devon, about eleven miles from 

 the outskirts of Exmoor, informed me that nearly three 

 weeks before he had found a nest containing almost 

 full-fledged young, which he took to be those of a 

 Lark. The extreme earliness of the nest aroused 

 my suspicion, so, on the following day, I asked Captain 

 Fanshawe to take me to the place. As we were searching 

 for the nest, an exclamation from my companion hurried 

 me to his side, where I was delighted to see a Wood-Lark's 

 (Alauda arborea) nest with four eggs. The nest was made 

 entirely of moss and dried grass, it had no lining, and 

 was placed in a small natural hollow under a tuft of dead 

 bracken. We afterwards found an old nest about fifteen 

 yards away, and this was in all probability the first nest of 

 the same pair of birds, the one containing feathered young 

 which Captain Fanshawe had found three weeks before. 



Both nests were situated in a narrow grass field dotted 

 with small patches of bracken and sloping down to a 

 steep bank covered with briars and bracken, with a few 

 oak and ash trees at scattered intervals. On the opposite 

 side of the valley was a large oak coppice, joining some 

 rough ground golden with furze bushes. I may note here 

 that nests of this species which I have found in Norfolk 

 ha^ e been situated in short grass with very little covering 

 over them, and in every case there has been a belt of 

 Scotch firs at about fifty yards distance. This day we 

 saw nothing of the birds. 



The next day I took out my camera with the intention 

 of photographing the nest and eggs. Approaching the 



