n6 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



who discourses learnedly on the mythical connotations of 

 the name in India and ancient Greece, finds that the sig- 

 nificance of this bird in popular tales is due to its crest, 

 which he shows to be an indication that it was among the 

 birds of the sun. "The crested lark," he says, "is the same 

 as the crested sun, the sun with its rays," and he con- 

 tinues: "In the legend of St. Christopher I see an 

 equivoque between the word Christos and the word cresta, 

 crest, and either way I see the sun personified." 



Whatever these speculations may be worth the old 

 stories attribute to the lark that funereal charity which 

 belongs to several birds, among them the European robin ; 

 and this brings us back to the main track and to the pretty 

 story of the Babes in the Woods. Away back in bad old 

 times a Norfolk gentleman left legacies to two infant 

 children, which were to pass to their uncle if the babies 

 died. After a year this uncle hired ruffians to take the 

 children into a forest and kill them, but instead the men 

 left them there to starve. For a time they ate black- 

 berries, but soon became exhausted, lay down, and went 

 to sleep, and expired. 



Their little corpse the robin-redbreast found, 

 And strew'd with pious bill the leaves around. 8 



More modern poets have made many allusions to this 

 touching tale, which Shakespeare knew, for in Cymbeline 

 he makes Arviragus say over Imogen — 



Thou shalt not lack 

 The flowers that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor 

 The azured harebell. . . . The ruddock would 

 With charitable bill bring thee all these. 



