54 IRE SMALLER BRITISE JURDS. 



THE SKY LARK. 



{Alauila anjciisis.) 

 PLATE IV. — FIGOEE IV, 



Perhaps the sweetest and cheeriest of all our native songsters, is 

 the little brown and grey bird, commonly known as the Sky or Field 

 Lark, in Scotland called the Laverock; uo other bird has a song at all 

 like it. We do not mean to say that it is as rich and melodious as 

 that of the Nightingale, as soft and mellow as that of the Blackbird, 

 as varied and flute-like as that of the Thrush. The Blackcap, the 

 Goldfinch, and the Linnet, when uttering their wood-notes wild, may, 

 by some, be considered more acconiplished musicians ; but for joyousness 

 and utter abandonment to the sweet ecstacy of singing for the mere 

 pleasure of doing so, there is nothing in the whole range of bird- 

 music that at all comes near it. To see that little bird spring up 

 from its grassy bed, and go soaring sunward on flutteriug pinions, 

 its whole frame quivering and trembling, as it seems with delight, 

 and to hear the rain of music that falls from that mere dot in the 

 sky, is something to wonder at and rejoice in ; the joyous creature 

 is indeed, as Shelly says, in that which is perhaps the most perfect 

 lyric in oiir language : — 



" Like a poet hidden 



Tn the light of thought, 

 Singing liymn.s nnbiddcn 

 Till the world is wrought 

 To .'iyrnpathy with hope and fcnrs it h"edcd not." 



To lio upon a grassy slope in the warm sunshine, with that sweet 

 melody filling the oars and the heart to overflowing, is like a dream 

 of happy childhood, and of all things fair and heavenly. 



To sit, as we have done, by the grave of one beloved, called early 

 to his rest, and hear several of these birds singing together far up 

 in the blue heavens, was like receiving the visitation of angels, and 

 hearing the songs with which they cheered the sorrowful as they 



