The Skylark 221 



marked illustration with all who describe the accessories 

 to rural scenery. 



The song is sustained for a considerable time without 

 break or interruption, both during the ascent and after 

 having attained its wished-for elevation, and also while 

 remaining poised in the air, so high as frequently to be 

 known only by its song faintly heard. 



Some of the old naturalists speak of its total disap- 

 pearance, the height being so great. I have never met 

 with such an experience, for I have been able to descry 

 the small speck at all times in the azure sky. It is quite 

 true the speck has been at times almost infinitesimal. 



There is a legend — very pretty truly to the child mind 

 and imagination — that the bird soars so high and so near 

 Paradise that it borrows its song, in its richness, from the 

 angelic choirs. 



It never perches on trees, but is entirely terrestrial, 

 walking and running with facility and swiftness, and 

 never has it recourse to hopping. 



In its geographical range the skylark seems pretty 

 generally and commonly distributed over Europe, de- 

 creasing to the northward, and there becoming migratory 

 in winter. 



I have noticed it as early as March the first, both on 

 this island and the adjacent mainland, and it remains in 

 full evidence till September, if fine. 



Not only those in possession of souls poetic have been 

 enraptured with the charming cadence of this prince of 

 songsters, but the rough gold-diggers, the early pioneers 

 of emigration to the Southern Cross, we are told, walked 

 many miles on the Sabbath to listen to the rich, full 

 melody of an English lark, which a female emigrant had 

 brought with her from the old country. These rough 

 men begged to be allowed to come, week by week, to hear 

 its song, which reminded them of the old associations of 

 their youth in an English peasant home. 



In the days of the early gold-mining, the Sabbath had 

 no meaning for them, as the extension of the Missionary 

 Society had not reached Australia, but to them the song 

 of this bird was typical of all that made life happy in the 

 old home, across the eleven thousand miles of ocean. 



