258 BRITISH BIRDS. 



utters its musical note (common to both male and female) and takes 

 refuge in the trees. The Wood-Lark is a thorough ground-bird, notwith- 

 standing the fact that it is in nine cases out of ten first observed in a tree, 

 and only repairs to the branches to sing, or as a starting-place for its aerial 

 wanderings. It roosts on the ground, obtains the greater part of its food 

 upon the ground, and on the ground it builds its nest. 



Dixon met with this bird in Algeria and writes : — " I only saw the Wood- 

 Lark in one locality in the country, and that was amongst the wooded 

 heights of the Aures, west of Batna. My first Algerian experience of this 

 interesting little bird was made in early morning; and so common were 

 they in a little clearing in the cedar-forest that the air seemed resonant 

 with their songs. Although my attention was too much confined to the 

 rare little Algerian Coal-Tit, so much so that I scarcely heeded such a 

 common bird as a Wood-Lark, beyond shooting one for identification, I 

 could not help noticing how tame and trustful they were — so different 

 from my experience of them in England. I never saw them in the 

 forest j they preferred the open spaces — places where the trees had either 

 been blown down by tempests or cut down by the French foresters. I 

 could count as many^as six in the air together, all singing lustily; and very 

 often one would sit on a low bush and allow me to approach it within a 

 few yards. They did not perch in the thickest part of the trees, but 

 generally selected a dead branch, from which they would sit and warble in 

 spite of the reports of our guns in the neighbouring forest. I saw one of 

 these birds assisting some Firecrests in mobbing a poor Kestrel that had 

 quite unintentionally disturbed them, and then soar into the air and utter 

 a song of triumph as the big bird took refuge amongst the cedars." 



In this country the Wood-Lark appears to be an early breeder. Newton 

 states, in his edition of YarrelPs ' British Birds,^ that the first eggs are 

 often laid by the middle of March ; but in the Parnassus I have taken 

 nests with fresh eggs as late as the third week in May. The nest is always 

 built upon the ground, and is generally well concealed under the shelter of 

 a tuft of herbage or a little bush, or amongst tall grass ; whilst Professor 

 Newton states that it is sometimes placed on the smoothest turf, and that he 

 has seen one in a stump of heather. It is made of coarse grass, scraps of 

 moss, and a few bits of twitch, and is lined with finer grass and sometimes 

 a little hair. The nest is generally placed in a little cavity, and is much 

 more firmly constructed than that of the Sky-Lark or the Tree-Pipit. 

 The eggs of the Wood-Lark are four or five in number ; sometimes those of 

 the second clutch are only three. The ground-colour varies from buflSsh 

 white to very pale greenish white, but the spots are always reddish brown 

 with underlying markings of violet- grey. Oa some eggs the markings are 

 very small and evenly distributed over the entire surface; others have 

 the majority of the spots collected in a zone, sometimes round the middle 



