84 SKYLARK. 



Lo ! how the Lark soars upward and is gone ; 



Turning a spirit as he nears the sky, 

 His voice is heard, though body there is none, 



And rain-like music scatters from on high. 



Hood— ^ero. 



Pois'd in air. 

 And warbling his wild notes about the clouds, 

 Almost beyond the ken of human sight, 

 Clapp'd to his side his plumy steerage, down 

 Drops ; instantaneous drops, the silent Lark. 



DoDD— Prison Thoughts. 



But only Lark and Nightingale forlorn, 

 Fill up the silences of night and morn. 



KooD— False Poets and True. 



The Skylark is very common on the arable land throughout 

 Herefordshire. Its numbers were much lessened by the severe 

 winter of 1880-1, and they are still, in 1884, not restored to the 

 usual average. The food of the Skylark consists, according to 

 M. Prevost, chiefly of insects of various kinds, flies, beetles, 

 grasshoppers, worms, seeds of many wild plants, and grain. In 

 the severe frosts of winter or early spring, Skylarks sometimes 

 do much mischief by attacking green crops, such as rape, 

 or young cabbages in allotment gardens. Upon the whole, 

 however, they must be considered more useful than injurious to 

 the farmer. 



The Skylark is a great favourite in captivity, and often cheers 

 the heart of the bed-ridden by the sprightliness of its song. It 

 keeps its health well, and seems happy and contented in its cage. 

 To those who complain of the bird's imprisonment, Thomson has 

 well answered, " We should not think only of the Skylark " ; and 

 Sir Francis B. Head's touching tale of "The Emigrant's Lark" 

 well illustrates the same feeling. 



The Skylark has been more noticed in prose and poetry than 



even the Nightingale. Grahame, in his " Birds of Scotland," has 



well contrasted the lowly situation of the nest with the lofty flight 



of its constructors : — 



Thou simple bird 

 Of all the vocal quire, dwellest in a home 

 The humblest ; yet thy morning song ascends 

 Nearest to Heaven. 



