THE SKYLARK. 
231 
tained at Portmarnock: it is preserved in Mr. T. W, Warren's 
collection. 
In a few other instances, but without particulars, I have had 
reports of the wax-wing's occurrence in Ireland. In all the years 
of its visits to this island, positively known, it has been met with 
in England likewise. It appears there as with us, only at rare 
and uncertain intervals. 
THE SKYLAEK. 
Common Lark. 
Alauda arvensis, Linn. 
Is common throughout Ireland, 
And partial, according to my observation, to marine islets off 
various parts of the coast. To judge from the British works in 
which this bird is treated of, its song, re-commenced in the 
autumn, would seem to be continued longer into the winter in 
this island than elsewhere ; — a result attributable to the humidity 
and mildness of the climate. It may be heard as frequently in 
fine bright days during the month of October, even in the bird's 
most elevated haunts in the mountain pastures about Belfast, as 
at any other season. One note may be given on this subject ; 
November the 1th , 1835 : — “I never heard more skylarks singing 
at any period of the year, than in the early part of this day, in the 
high pastures bounded by the heath in the Belfast mountains, at 
an elevation of about 1000 feet above the sea. The day was fine 
and bright ; the ground very wet from continued rain throughout 
the days and nights of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, early part of the 
5th, and occasionally since, until this morning." Montagu 
remarks, that this bird is “ rarely seen on the extended moors at a 
distance from arable land," and later British authors repeat the 
observation. The wild mountain pasture, however, is in Ireland 
a favourite abode, and there, as mentioned in the following note, 
the delightful voice of the skylark may occasionally be heard at 
a rather late hour, mingling with the bleating of the snipe : — June 
