,]// Rigliis Reserved. October, 1920. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 
Some Larhs in My Aviaries. 
By VV. Shore Baily. 
I started this season with great expectations and five 
pairs of Larks. These were a pair of the rare Red-crowned 
Lark {T ephrocorys cincrea): two pairs of the httle Mouse 
Lark {Mirafra sabota), and two pairs of my old friend, the 
White-cheeked Finch Lark {Pyrrhulauda leucotis). 
I turned the Red-capped and one pair of the Finch-Larks 
into one of my largest aviaries, with gravel paths, patches of 
grass, growing potatoes, bushes, and running water; in fact, a 
perfect paradise for Any kind of bird. But, as far as I know 
neither pair made any attempt at nesting. It is true that a 
large grass snake occupied the aviary all siunmer, and evaded 
all attempts at capture until the end of the season. I think- 
that this reptile undoubtedly accounted for a troop of young 
Calif ornian Quail, while I was on a holiday, and it may, of 
course, have taken the eggs of any other birds that nested on or 
near the ground. 
Into a smaller aviary containing a cock and two hen 
Whydahs, a pair of Yellow-rumped Serins, a pair of Diamond 
Doves, and a pair of Button Quail, I turned the two pairs of 
Mouse Larks, thinking that with this small number of birds 
they would not be likely to get unduly bullied. The sexes are 
alike, and I was quite uncertain whether i nad true pairs. 
However, before they had been turned out many days, I saw 
one of the birds scraping out a hollow under a tuft of grass; 
this she lined with fine rootlets. Two eggs were laid, greenish 
white, heavily speckled with grey, and not unlike some of the 
eggs of our House Sparrow. The weather was very wet and 
unsettled at the time, so I rigged up a sheet of iron over the 
nest, but this unfortunately caused her to desert. Some three 
