might not sit on the zinc ; and, curiously enough, both this bird

(for her first nest) and the Rock-Thrush used only this soiled

hay for their respective nests. Watching from a window of the

house, I was able to see her fly down with this hay, but nothing

more. It transpired afterwards that six eggs were laid ; and she

seems to have commenced sitting with the first; and the first¬

born of the four was perhaps six days older than the youngest.


The female Lark sat very timidly, instantly leaving the

nest (first running some yards, then flying) if the handle of the

house-door, which opened into the adjoining aviary, were but

touched. There was one curious difference between this species

and the Rock-Thrush. The male Rock-Thrush, with a meal¬

worm in his bill, would sit like a lump for any length of time if

he could detect the slightest sign of my presence at any of the

windows, and it was weary work watching him ; but the Lark

seldom, if ever, although so wary, detected me through the glass.

On June 15th, creeping on all-fours beneath the thick foliage, I

paid my first visit to the nest. It was not where I had supposed.

The thickening foliage had driven the Lark away to the most

open (overhead) spot she could find at the back of the garden.

Observing the nest-hole under the wall to have been deserted,

for a moment I was nonplused, when I suddenly found the

young under my nose. I counted them carefully, only three

heads were visible, and these three heads with their three

corresponding bodies were thickly coated with exceptionally

long down of a light yellow, or yellow-buff, colour. Now that I

knew where to look for the nest, I found I could get a distant

peep at it from the feeding-place ; and as the lump of yellow

down swelled above the level of the ground, when attending to

the food and water, I could daily form an idea as to how matters

were progressing.


On June 22nd, the female commenced building another

nest. On the first day she carried only lumps of earth :—If I

ever had any doubts as to the power of a bird to cany its eggs or

anything else, they were dispelled by the sight of the ease with

which this bird carried really large lumps ot earth to her nest.

After depositing each lump in the nest-hole, which presumably

had been excavated before I was up, she proceeded to work at it

with her chest, moving her body right and left. Disgusted with

the thick foliage, this second nest was built in the front of the

aviary, and could be watched from the house.


To return to the young birds :—On June 23rd, the nest was

chock full, the first-born sprawling as usual over the others ;

but on the following day there remained but one lialf-fledged



