WOOD LARK 
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with deep reddish-brown, and often with fainter 
underlying spots of pale lavender-grey. The spots 
and frecklings vary a good deal in density, and 
often coalesce into a conspicuous band round the 
larger end. The eggs are larger than a Robin's, 
often a good deal larger, while the Meadow Pipit's, 
with which they might be confused from the 
character and situation of the nest, are both con- 
siderably smaller in size and a good deal duskier 
in colour. The Skylark occasionally does some 
damage to growing wheat, but its food chiefly con- 
sists of insects, worms, and the seeds of various 
weeds. 
WOOD LARK. 
{^Alauda arbor ea.) 
The Wood Lark is a much more local species 
than its better known relation, being commonest 
on the hills which bound the Thames Valley, and 
on the chalk range which runs thence into Buck- 
ingham and Hertfordshire. It is found in other 
scattered localities in the more southerly parts of 
England, but is rare to the north of the Trent. 
It is also an extremely sweet singer, and is to be 
heard almost as constantly as the Skylark, by 
night as well as by day ; but its song has not the 
same extreme vigour and vivacity of tone as the 
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