70 



Pictures of Bird Life 



words is more important to tliem than tlie mere triitli of 

 any fact. 



I think it is Mrs. Hemans wlio writes of the sky-blue 

 eggs of the Lark ! Tennyson is more poetic, and also more 

 correct, when he writes : 



As the miisie of the moon 

 Sleeps in the plain eggs of the Nightingale. 



And even Tennyson is not altogetlier perfect. Some of liis 



allusions to birds are, how- 

 ever, particularly happy. 

 A\ hat, for instance, can 

 be more true than the 

 line — 



As careful Robins eye the 

 delver's toil ? 



Vou can ahnost see the 

 redbreasted favourite of 

 cliildliood. Cock - robin, 

 watching with sidelong- 

 glance and bright black 

 eyes the spadefuls of earth 



thrown up by the gardener, and pouncing eagerly on luckless 



worm or earwig as soon as imco^ered. 



Or, as a forecast of spring, what coidd be more fitting than — 



The building Rook 'ill caw from the windy tall elm-tree, 



And the tufted Plover pipe along the fallow lea, 



And the Swallow 'ill come back n^ain with summer o'er the Vvave? 



Yellow Wagtail {Mofaci/la rail). 



Nightingales, though shy and retiring, may be easily 



