450 ALAUDIDA. 
of the crop, witnessed this; and about an hour afterwards 
went to see if she was safe, when, to his great surprise, 
he found that she had actually constructed a dome of dry 
grass over the nest during the interval, leaving an aperture 
on one side for ingress and egress, thus endeavouring to 
secure a continuance of the shelter previously supplied by 
the long grass.” Two or three instances are recorded of 
the Sky Lark moving its eggs under the fear of impending 
danger ; and Mr. Jesse, in the fourth edition of his Glean- 
ings, adds the followmg communication made to him by a 
clergyman in Sussex, who during a previous harvest “ was 
riding gently towards Dell Quay, in Chichester Harbour, 
with two friends; when having passed the toll-bar, the 
road is of good elevation, and separated by a short quick- 
set hedge on each side from the fields, over which there 
was a commanding view. When in this situation, their 
attention was attracted by a shrieking cry, and they dis- 
covered a pair of Sky Larks rising out of the stubble; and 
crossing the road before them at a slow rate, one of them 
having a young bird in its claws, which was dropped in 
the opposite field at a height of about thirty feet from the 
ground, and killed by the fall. On taking it up it ap- 
peared to have been hatched about eight or nine days. 
The affectionate parent was endeavouring to convey its 
young one to a place of safety, but its strength failed in 
the attempt.” 
Mr. W. P. Foster, surgeon of Church-street, Hackney, 
has for some years kept twelve or fifteen pairs of our 
smaller smging birds together in an aviary, where they 
appear in excellent health and plumage, repaying the care 
and attention bestowed upon them by pursuing the round 
of their various mteresting labits,—the song, the court- 
ship, the nest-building, and feeding their young, within 
