NOTES AND QUERIES. 223 



of the Grosbeaks. It had a very pretty effect, the two hardy species feeding 

 together, picking off the bright red berries— the Grosbeaks clinging to the 

 branches back downwards like Parrots. The flocks of Grosbeaks consisted 

 almost entirely of dull-coloured individuals, females or young birds, and 

 there were only two or three old males in their handsome red plumage. 

 They were so tame that it was sometimes difficult to avoid blowing them 

 to pieces by discharging the gun too close to them. They disappeared 

 about the middle of March. The Waxwings remained until the end 

 of April, and when other food was exhausted they fed on the berries of the 

 cockspur thorn. They were much more wary than the Grosbeaks and more 

 difficult to approach. It appears to me to add greatly to the improbability 

 of a "fine red male Pine Grosbeak" having occurred in Devonshire, that 

 so few individuals are met with in red plumage, it being old cock birds 

 that assume the finest plumage. It is also more likely that young birds 

 would visit England than old ones. — W. S. M. D'Urban (10, Claremont 

 Terrace, Exmouth). 



Nesting Habits of the Sky Lark. — I send you a query, and shall be 

 much obliged to you if you will insert it in 'The Zoologist.' I have 

 noticed this season a rather singular thing with regard to the nesting of 

 the Sky Lark, Alauda arvensis, which may or may not be confined to this 

 district ; all the Sky Larks' nests which have come under my notice this 

 year have had but three eggs. I have only seen some four or five myself, 

 but several of my friends who take an interest in Ornithology have remarked 

 the same peculiarity to me. From a rough calculation I find that out of 

 about eighteen nests that have come under my notice, only two have had 

 four eggs, and one nest two eggs ; the rest have all contained but three, and 

 not one have I heard of that contained five. Now, so far as my experience 

 goes, the Sky Lark generally lays five eggs, sometimes but four, and only 

 exceptionally ceases laying at three. I should much like to know if any 

 other readers of ' The Zoologist ' have remarked a similar anomaly in the 

 nidification of the Sky Lark. While out for a walk with a friend this 

 season, on April 20th, I found a Sky Lark's nest with one egg in it : thirteen 

 days after I happened to be close to the spot with the same friend, so we 

 thought we would go to see if the nest was all right. I was much surprised 

 to find that the nest — unmistakably the same — contained three young 

 birds, which had apparently been hatched about twenty-four hours. Now 

 allowing that the bird laid one egg per day, and had not laid upon the day 

 on which I found the nest (about 2.30 p.m.), the period of incubation could 

 not possibly have been more than eleven days, which seemed to me a 

 remarkably short time ; so on arriving home I looked up the length of the 

 period of incubation for the Sky Lark in the first edition of Yarrell's 

 1 British Birds,' and found that he gave it as fifteen days. Mr. Howard 



