on the Nesting of the Li es ted Lark. 277


of course), began to carry large beakfuls of grass and did his best

to induce the female to build in a secluded corner. They used to

flirt most outrageously and I may here remark that the Carretera

seems to be a sort of buffoon of bird society ; he never does any¬

thing without a vast amount of prancing, posturing and grimac¬

ing and apparently does his very best on all occasions to add to

the gaiety of the community in which he finds himself by making

himself ridiculous. But, though he likes to pose as a wag, he is

anything but a fool, The female, however, had other views and

I was very much annoyed to see that she had decided to build in

the most open part of the aviary, close to the spot where I am in

the habit of placing my observation chair.


According to Oates the Crested Lark generally makes use

of some small depression in the ground, as for instance the print

of a cow’s hoof for its nest but my birds certainly dug out with

their stout beaks a circular cavity and, what is more, they dug

several before they were quite satisfied with the result, and then

lined the cavity with fine grass. The nest was not placed in a

tuft but in a spot w'here the grass was rather thin and it was

therefore not particularly well concealed. It was completed on

the Sth June; the first egg was laid on the 10th. The clutch of

four eggs was completed on the 13th, but incubation commenced

on the 12th. The eggs were rather large, the ground-colour

cream, thickly spotted with light terra-cotta, dark-brown and

a few purplish blotches. The eggs were so unlike one another

that one would think that each one had been taken from a

different clutch. One had confluent markings forming a circular

blotch on the apex, another had the spots equally distributed

over its 'whole surface and the remaining two showed rings of

spots at the point where the diameter w 7 as greatest.


As far as I could ascertain only the female incubated and

she was the most unsteady sitter that I have ever known, in fact it

seemed to me impossible that the eggs should hatch in view of

the length of time that they were left every day uncovered in a

thinly lined nest on the cold ground and in particularly wet and

chilly 7 weather. I see by reference to my note-book that the only

day without rain during the period of incubation was the 22nd.

However, 011 the 24th, two young hatched and the remaining



