42 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
when he says, in his Ode to the Skylark, “Thou 
dost float and run.” Flying seems hard work for 
him, and he does as little of it as possible. When 
he starts up from the meadow, he goes in a di- 
rect line to the tree he wishes to reach. Like 
the bobolink, he nests in fields and lays his eggs 
in a coil of dried grass on the ground. 
In variety and execution the famous song of the 
European lark may be superior to that of our own 
Eastern lark, though Wilson holds that ours ex- 
cels it in “sweetness of voice.” The mournful 
melody of the meadow-lark is full of poetic sugges- 
tions; he is the hermit thrush of the meadows, 
and where the light-hearted bobolink’s song jos- 
tles the sunbeams, he is as solitary and pensive as 
the lonely hermit when it thrills the hush of the 
sunset after-glow with its fervid Te Deum. 
b. SB 
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE; TITMOUSE. 
ReaD Emerson’s “ Titmouse” and you will 
recognize this charming little bird without the 
aid of your glass. Not only in spring and fall, 
but in the coldest winter days you will hear what 
Thoreau calls the “silver tinkling ” chick-a-dee- 
dee-dee-dee, chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee ringing through 
the air. When you hear it, if you look carefully 
over the trees you will see a fluffy little body 
