Birds of Oregon and Washington 71 



have delighted in it in imagination. Nearly 

 every one who has read poetry at all knows, 

 more or less intimately, Shelley's, and perhaps 

 Wordsworth's '' Skylark " ; and many can repeat 

 at least a part of James Hogg's airy lines, be- 

 ginning 



"Bird of the wilderness, 

 Blithsome and cumberless." 



Whoever in Oregon has seen this bird soar, 

 and has heard him while soaring ever singing, 

 can appreciate Shakespeare's unequalled lines, 



" Hark, hark, the lark at Heaven's gate sings," 



and has felt that the poet has not overdone the 

 fact. The bird is enchanting beyond the de- 

 scriptive powers of poetry or prose. We must 

 see and hear the Skylark for ourselves. 



Behold a bird rising from the meadow, and 

 the instant it is on the wing beginning a flood 

 of exquisite song of rapid variation which does 

 not cease, even for breathing, till, sometimes 

 after fifteen or twenty minutes, it drops again 

 to earth ! Meanwhile, it is literally in the sky, 

 and lost to sight if the eye should, even for an 

 instant, surrender its object. No bird on our 

 continent so nearly bursts with gladness. There 



