THE SKYLARK. 



The daisied lea he lovee, where tufts of gram 

 Luxuriant crown the ridge : there, with his mate. 

 He founds their lonely house, of withered herbs, 

 And coarsest spear-grass ; next the inner vork. 

 With finer, and still finer fibres lays, 

 Bounding it curious with his speckled breast. 



Gi 



Larks breed thrioe a year, in May, July, and Aagiut) 

 rearing their young in a short space of time. 



ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES 



The instinctive warmth of attachment which the female 

 Skylark bears towards her own species, even when not hor 

 nestling, is remarkable. "In the month of May," sayi 

 BuflFon, " a young hen bird was brought to me, which was 

 not able to feed without assistance. I caused her to be 

 reared ; and she was hardly fledged, when I received from 

 another place, a nest of three or four unfledged larks. She 

 took a strong liking to these new comers, which were but 

 little younger than herself; she tended them night and 

 day, cherished them beneath her wings, and fed them with 

 her bill. Nothing could interrupt her tender offices. If 

 the young ones were torn from her she flew to them as soon 

 as they were liberated, and would not think of'effecting her 

 own escape, which she might have done a hundred times, 

 ller affection grew upon her ; she neglected food and drink ; 

 *ho at length required the same support as her adopted 

 Spring, and expired at last consumed with maternal Bo)i- 



