68 THE SKY-LARK. 



sensation of freshness without coldness. Away we 

 tripped across the fields that crown the summit of 

 Byng Cliff, treading on a soft and painted carpet of 

 daisies and buttercups, pimpernel, clover and dande- 

 lion. The suburbs and villas looked attractive in 

 their bowery groves, just flushed with green. Cock- 

 chafers, with loud buzzings, were "wheeling their 

 drony flight " round the brambles of the hedgerows, 

 and Larks were singing by scores in the dazzling 

 sky, now and then dropping to hover over the grass 

 a moment, before they sank in. A sweet picture of 

 innocent happiness does this bird present ; he pours 

 out his heart in thrilling song far above the world in 

 the full beams of the bright sun, and then sinks to 

 repose in his humble nest, where the embrace of love 

 welcomes him, and his infant progeny call forth all 

 his fondness and all his joy ! 



Hark to that little snatch of a song ! I thought it 

 at first some lad at work, whistling " for want of 

 thought," so full and mellow are the notes : but no ; 

 it is a Starling in yonder cage. He repeats this bar 

 every two minutes or so, with an interval of silence 

 between. Flocks of Starlings circle round the fields, 

 not yet reduced to slavery and the cage ; and there 

 the Poke-pudding flits by, trailing after him his more 

 than sufficient longitude of tail. 



"We get into a lane, deeply cut up with ruts, and 

 reduced in its narrow dimensions by heaps of rotting 

 sea-grass bordering each side, on which we have to 

 mount to allow the manure-cart to pass. The carter- 

 lad, not unmindful of the elegancies of life, amidst his 

 somewhat sordid employment, has decked the head 



