possible connexion with the fact that this species feeds less
on seeds than most of its family, for the Woodlark's habits
have hitherto been very insufficiently studied, and even its
distribution throughout the British Islands cannot, for want
of materials, be precisely set forth. I t is emphatically a
local bird—in the spring and summer hardly straying two
hundred yards from the spot which it has selected for its
nest, and at all times except when in the act of migration
restricting itself to some particular place, where year after
year it may be observed at the proper season. Perhaps the
best account of the species, the writer’s whims apart, is that
given by Neville Wood (British Song Birds, pp. 259—271),
but his observations only refer to Derbyshire, and do not
apply to some other parts of England, where its habits, in
several respects, are very different. He describes it as being
resident throughout the year, and most easily observed in
winter on account of the nudity of the trees at that season,
when it becomes particularly lively, assembling in small
flocks and haunting the outskirts of wToods in low and
sheltered, but not marshy, spots. During the cold weather
it keeps very close and may be seen diligently seeking its
food beneath the trees or bushes, but a gleam of sunshine
disperses the band, and it may then be met with alone or in
pairs on the high ground and the arable lands, while with
the return of frost it reassembles as before. Early in March
it again disperses and during the spring and summer it
partakes equally of ground and woodland habits, but it is at
all times, says Wood, a shy species and one with which intimate
acquaintance is not easily made. In the western part of
Norfolk and Suffolk, about Thetford, the Woodlark is not uncommon,
but there it is strictly migratory, appearing very early
in the year with the first decidedly open weather, and remaining
until August when it ordinarily departs, though occasionally
a few examples may be seen in autumn. In this district it
is almost exclusively limited to certain spots of light soil
which are close to old plantations of Scotch firs, and from
the partiality shewn to such localities it may perhaps be
rightly inferred to be but a comparatively recent colonist,
since trees of this kind cannot have been planted there for
much more than a century, and the bird, though seldom
using them as a perch, is scarcely ever to be seen far from
them. Montagu remarked that it was more common in
Devonshire than in any other part of England, and especially
so in winter, thus indicating that the species sought southern
quarters at that season, as has since been proved to be the
case, for though not numerous enough to form anything like
the enormous hosts that the Skylark does, Mr. Knox has
noticed it congregating during severe frosts in vast flocks on
the coast of Sussex, and in the cold winter of 1866-67 especially
these flocks seem to have been exceptionally large both
in that county and in Kent (Zool. s.s. pp. 705, 756, 792).
But however diversified are the Woodlark’s habits, all
observers will agree in admiration of its song. Though its
voice has neither the variety nor the power of the Skylark’s,
it is superior to that in quality of tone, and by many people
preferred accordingly. The duration of each song is longer
even than in the Skylark, and the Woodlark sings for quite
as many months in the year—indeed the period of moulting
seems to be the only time when it is absolutely silent.
Sometimes uttered from a percli on the upper branches of
a tree, its soothing notes never sound more sweetly than
while the performer is mounting in the air by wide circles,
or having attained the summit of its lofty flight is hanging
almost stationary overhead. Yet the strain which accompanies
the spiral descent is hardly inferior and the quavering
call-note of both sexes is equally musical. There is also a
plaintive character in the song of the cock, which is second
only to the Nightingale’s and, like that bird’s, is said also to
be heard in hot summer-nights as
“ High in air, and pois’d upon his wings,
Unseen, the soft, enamour’d Woodlark sings,”
The nest is built in a depression of the ground, sheltered
by a low bush, or a tuft of grass; or if the herbage be scanty,
as it often is in places frequented by the bird, wherever the
bents grow thickest; but it may be placed on turf that is as