162 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
Skylark's, and it delivers it in a rather different 
manner in the air. It does not soar so high, and 
has a more hovering method of descent, in wide 
circles or spirals. It also keeps more to the neigh- 
bourhood of copses and thickets on dry, sloping 
ground, and more often begins and ends its flight 
on the top of a tree, in the manner of the Tree 
Pipit. The Tree Pipit makes, however, much 
shorter and more regular ascents and descents, like 
a sort of fountain with periodic jets. The Wood 
Lark is very like the Skylark in colour, but it 
is rather smaller, has a much shorter tail which 
increases the apparent inferiority of size, and may 
also be distinguished at close quarters by the much 
more prominent pale stripe over the eye. The 
nest is built on the ground, usually in some less 
open situation than the Skylark's, as, for instance, 
in taller, tangled grass, or at the foot of a small 
bush ; it may, however, be found in a depression 
on the level turf. It is made chiefly of dry grass, 
but may have a little moss in it ; it is said to be 
found as early as the middle of March, but April 
is the more usual time. The eggs are the same 
size as an average Skylark's, pale greenish- white 
in ground-colour, thickly speckled with fine dots 
of dark reddish-brown and fainter specks of grey. 
The spots do not run together into a dense mass, 
as in the Skylark's egg, but are all precise and 
