ALAUDID&. 251 
THE WOOD-LARK. 
ALAUDA ARBOREA, Linnzus. 
The Wood-Lark is a locally distributed species in England and 
Wales, being chiefly found during the breeding-season on warm, 
dry, light soils, especially on undulating ground studded with copses 
or plantations. Although nowhere plentiful, it is most frequent in 
some of the southern counties, such as Devon, Dorset, Wilts, and 
Gloucestershire ; it occurs on the Chiltern Hills, and is also fairly 
distributed along the dry, wooded and rising ground on both sides 
of the valley of the Thames, as well as over the line of the chalk 
formation which runs from Buckinghamshire to West Norfolk and 
Suffolk. In the midland counties it is very local, and northward it 
gradually becomes scarce ; comparatively few breeding in Yorkshire, 
Lancashire, Cumberland and the Lake district. Up to that point 
it appears to be a resident in some localities and an irregular 
migrant in others, while it is a species which has suffered consider- 
ably from the persecutions of bird-catchers and to some extent from 
severe winters ; but few records for even the south of Scotland are 
authentic, and it may be well to remember that the term “ Wood- 
Lark” is often misapplied to the Tree-Pipit. In winter considerable 
companies are sometimes found in the southern districts of England, 
especially in snowy weather, but there does not appear to be any 
important immigration from the Continent. In Ireland this species 
has bred in cos. Wicklow and Cork. 
The Wood-Lark rarely visits Heligoland. In summer it inhabits 
the southern portion of Scandinavia, as well as Russia below about 
