135 



WOOD LARK. 



PLATE LXXIII. 



Alauda arlorea, . . Pennant. Montagu. Bewick. 

 Alauda nemorosa, . . Gmelin. 



Alauda cristaiella, . . Latham. 



The nest is placed upon the ground, beneath some 

 low bush or tuft of grass, or at the foot of a tree; occa- 

 sionally under the shelter of a fence or paling, or on 

 a bank; one has been known on the trunk of a fallen 

 oak, on the topmost bough of which, perhaps, in 

 previous years when it still stood in all its pride, the 

 bird had warbled forth her strains, and now when 

 levelled with the earth, she ^^could not bid the spot 

 adieu," but sang a daily requiem over the fallen 

 remains. The outside materials are small roots, grass, 

 and sometimes moss, and the lining smaller grasses, 

 with occasionally a little hair. 



The eggs, which are laid at the end of March or 

 beginning of April, and also in July, there seeming to 

 be two broods in the year, are four or five in number, 

 of a pale reddish white, or yellowish brown ground 

 colour, spotted and speckled with dull reddish brown, 

 or dark grey, or brownish grey, with sometimes a few 

 irregular dusky lines at the larger end. 



The figure of the nest is from a specimen obligingly 

 forwarded by W. Bridger, Esq.; and that of the cg,^ 

 from one taken in Hampshire, early in the month of 

 March, by the Eev. J. Williams. 



